KHARTOUM, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An Austrian tourist who said he was questioned on suspicion of being a spy in Sudan has been allowed to leave the country without charge, his consul said on Tuesday.

Thomas Hirschvogel wrote on his blog he had been barred from leaving the coastal city of Port Sudan after police found articles about a former rebel group in his luggage.

He said security officers questioned him, thinking he was either an unregistered journalist or a spy.

But officials from the Austrian embassy in Cairo contacted Sudanese security officers in the city late Monday and heard the 20-year-old would face no charges.

"He has been released. He is free to leave," said Austria's Cairo-based consul Edwin Ferner. "We have advised him to leave the country as soon as possible." (Writing by Andrew Heavens in Khartoum; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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