A ring R is defined to be semiabelian if every idempotent of R is either right semicentral or left semicentral. It is proved that the set N(R) of nilpotent elements in a π-regular ring R is an ideal of R if and only if R/J(R) is abelian, where J(R) is the Jacobson radical of R. It follows that a semiabelian ring R is π-regular if and only if N(R) is an ideal of R and R/N(R) is regular, which ex...