A South African court on Sunday issued a temporary ban on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg.

A South African court on Sunday issued a temporary ban on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir leaving the country after the International Criminal Court called for him to be arrested at a summit in Johannesburg.

The Pretoria High Court said in a statement it was "compelling respondents to prevent President Omar Al-Bashir from leaving the country until an order is made in this court".

The hearing is set to take place later Sunday, the opening day of the African Union summit.

The ruling came after the Southern African Litigation Centre, a legal rights group, launched an urgent court application to force the authorities to arrest Bashir.

Bashir, who was due in the country on Sunday to attend an African summit meeting, joined a group photograph of leaders at the summit despite the calls for his arrest.

ICC head Sidiki Kaba asked the South African authorities in a statement late on Saturday "to fulfill their obligations to execute the arrest warrants" against Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir.

"Two arrest warrants issued by the Court against Mr. al-Bashir remain outstanding," he wrote, a reference to two ICC documents issued in 2009 and 2010.

The statement added that “the President of the Assembly expresses his deep concern about the negative consequences for the Court in case of non-execution of the warrants by States Parties and, in this regard, urges them to respect their obligations to cooperate with the Court."

"To this end, he calls on South Africa…to spare no effort in ensuring the execution of the arrest warrants if the information received is confirmed."

Bashir, 71, has been Sudanese president since October 1993 and is accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed during the country’s Darfur conflict.

Darfur witnessed large-scale violence in 2003 between Bashir’s government and several organized armed groups, in particular the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement who claim that their region has been marginalized.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has said that genocide was committed during the fighting.

According to the UN, more than 400,000 people were killed during the conflict but Sudanese officials claim the death toll was much lower.

Some media reports suggest Bashir will still travel to South Africa on Sunday.