Nairobi, march 11 (Alshahid) -– Leaders from Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states on Tuesday urged parties to the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement to remain committed to the implementation of outstanding issues in the agreement.

The IGAD leaders asked the parties to the CPA to particularly move towards completing the North-South Abyei border demarcation, redeployment of forces, integration of the joint Units, establishment of South Sudan and Abyei Referendum Commissions of popular consultations in South Kordofon and blue Nile States .

They also want the long-running boundary dispute in the oil-producing Abyei region resolved fast owing to the building tension ahead of the country’s elections next month and an upcoming referendum in 2011 to decide whether South Sudan would formally break away from the North.

Both north and south Sudan have claimed Abyei, a central area straddling the country’s north-south border, for decades.

The leaders, who included President Mwai Kibaki, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Ismael Omar Guelleh of Djibouti and Transitional Federal Government of Somalia Premier Omar Ali Sharmark among others, made the recommendations in a communiqué issued at the end of the 14th Extra-Ordinary Summit of IGAD Assembly of Heads of State and Government on the Sudan peace process at Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

“The implementation of the CPA is at a critical stage because of the coming elections and the referendum and how they are tackled will shape the future of Sudan,” President Mwai Kibaki said.

In his closing remarks, Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi reaffirmed IGAD’s total commitment to support both SPLM and NCP in the Sudan peace process towards the realization of the agreed objectives and goals of the C.P.A. implementation process.