20100620
Reuters

KHARTOUM- Sudan may ask the United Nations to run a referendum on the future of a politically sensitive border region after northern and southern leaders failed to appoint organisers, a party official said on Sunday.

The residents of Abyei are less than seven months away from a vote on whether their border territory, close to key oilfields, should be part of north or south Sudan.

The vote has regional significance because, on the same day, the people of south Sudan have been promised a ballot on whether to separate from the north to become an independent state.

Yasir Arman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the dominant party in the south, said northern and southern leaders had failed to agree on who should join a commission to organise the Abyei vote despite months of debate.

"So far we have failed ... If it becomes clear that we cannot agree then the only way out is the United Nations," he told Reuters.

"The problems are the names. The National Congress cannot agree. We have been giving them the names, names from the civil service and lawyers, and hopefully we can still agree."

If Abyei residents decide to join the south they could, at a stroke, become part of Africa's newest country, taking their oil reserves and rich grazing land out of Khartoum's control.

Political analysts have said time is running out to organise the votes and there is a risk of violence if southerners believe the north is trying to delay or disrupt the plebiscites.

Arman, the SPLM candidate in a presidential election held in April, said his party would submit a fresh set of names in a final attempt to reach