The international outcry over her sentence included almost one million people who appealed to save her life on the Change.org petition website.

The United States on Monday welcomed a decision by a court in Khartoum to free a Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for converting to Christianity.

"We welcome the decision by the Sudanese appeals court today to release Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag from a Sudanese jail," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, urging the Sudan government to repeal its draconian laws forbiding religious conversion.

"As you know, the case has drawn the attention of the world, has been of deep concern to United States government and to many Americans," said Harf, calling on the government "to repeal its laws that are inconsistent with its 2005 interim constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."

Harf added: "These actions would help demonstrate to the Sudanese people that their government intends to respect their fundamental freedoms and universal human rights."

Born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, Ishag, 26, was convicted under Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.

The international outcry over her sentence included almost one million people who appealed to save her life on the Change.org petition website.