Two Sudans Agree to Peace Talks

Sudan and South Sudan have agreed on a road map to guide talks aimed at ending weeks of fighting, but tensions along the nations' poorly marked border persisted with each accusing the other of attacks, officials said Sunday.

According to Mutrif Sidiq, a Sudanese official and member of the country's peace delegation, negotiators have agreed to adopt a road map whose implementation is expected to begin Monday with a meeting of defense and military officials from the two countries to discuss border security.

After months of bickering over a string of disputes, tensions flared up in March, triggering deadly clashes in oil regions that straddle the two nation's 1,800-kilometer border. Sudan and South Sudan reached a messy separation last summer after a two-decade civil war and have accused each other of supporting proxy rebels against the other. Both deny each other's accusations.

South Sudan said Saturday that it had filed a complaint to the U.N. Security Council accusing Sudan of continuing attacks on military and civilian targets within its territory using fighter jets and ground artillery, in violation of the May 2 Security Council resolution requiring the two cease hostilities. South Sudan also accused Khartoum of failing to withdraw its troops from the disputed oil region of Abyei.

Khartoum has sent mixed signals regarding the withdrawal from Abyei in recent days. The country's military initially said it had withdrawn troops early last week, however, a government spokesman later said that it would maintain scores of policemen to maintain order in the region, drawing condemnation from the U.N.

A Sudanese army spokesman said Sunday that Sudan had pulled out the police forces from the region, but South Sudan insists that Sudanese troops pulled out of areas that have no oil but redeployed in the areas with oil.

The two countries are in a deadlock over ownership of oil-rich border territories and over how much South Sudan should pay Sudan for use of its oil pipelines.

The U.N. and the African Union have given the two sides until Aug. 2 to resolve the disputes or face sanctions. Most of the two country's oil is in the South, though pipelines needed to transport the oil to Port Sudan where it is exported to the global market, traverse the north.