20110629
Reuters
ADDIS ABABA/JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan agreed on Wednesday to bring some former rebels into the its army and the south played down a northern threat to shut oil pipelines, as the country's halves scramble to prepare for the south's looming secession.

South Sudan is due to become the world's newest independent state in less than two weeks, but the two parts of the country have yet to iron out tough issues, from the mutual border to how they will share oil revenue and divide $38 billion in debt.

The main parties from both sides held talks in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, mediated by South African former President Thabo Mbeki, to resolve the fate of fighters from the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army who will end up in the north.

Mbeki said the sides had agreed on Wednesday that fighters from the south's former guerrilla army who end up in northern territory would be incorporated into the northern army. He said they planned to meet again on Thursday to discuss prospects for a ceasefire in a border area where there have been clashes.

The two sides also need to figure out how to divide oil earnings that represent the lifeblood of both economies.

About three-quarters of Sudan's roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil output comes from the south, but most of the refineries, pipelines and ports are in the north. Under an agreement which will end when the south secedes on July 9, they have shared the revenue equally.

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened last week to shut down oil pipelines if the south refuses to pay transit fees or continue the current arrangement.

"We completely regret and are surprised by the decision of the president of the Republic of Sudan that he can close off the pipes that carry the oil from southern Sudan," the south's Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters.

"This is also the oil that also supports 70 percent of the economy in the north. So we are obliged by the mutual cooperation that we need that oil to flow, so that Sudan can benefit, and the people in south Sudan, who are the owners, also benefit."

FIGHTERS STRANDED

Southerners chose to separate from the north in a January referendum, the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war in Sudan, which killed some 2 million people and destabilised much of the region.

After a peaceful referendum and the north's endorsement of the result, the slow division of Africa's largest country has turned tense in its final stages, including a military standoff in parts of the ill-defined border region.

Thousands of fighters who sided with the south during the 1983-2005 civil war will be left in northern territory, notably in the north's Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile border states.

Fighting broke out between the northern military and fighters associated with the south's dominant political force, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), in Southern Kordofan on June 5, stoking tensions ahead of the split.

Members of the north's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the northern branch of the SPLM would "engage each other" on Thursday morning on the cessation of hostilities in Southern Kordofan, Mbeki said.

The sides had signed an agreement that "provides for a political partnership, as well steps to be taken for security arrangements in South Kordofan", Mbeki told reporters.

"The Republic of Sudan will have one national army," the agreement, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, said.

"The SPLA forces from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile shall be integrated, over a time period and with modalities to be agreed, into the Sudan Armed Forces, other security institutions and civil service," it said, referring to the SPLM's military wing, the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

The groups also agreed the SPLM North should be allowed to continue as a legal political party.

Some analysts are sceptical a deal reached in Addis Ababa will have sway over fighters in Southern Kordofan, many from the ethnic Nuba population, who felt left out when the 2005 peace deal excluded their territory as part of the south.

Both U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called for a ceasefire in the state, which has oil deposits. Humanitarian groups fear a rising death toll.

The south's Benjamin condemned an attack on a train carrying southern civilians in Southern Kordofan on Sunday. The United Nations said the attack was carried out by northern Misseriya tribesmen, who denied it.