Sudan, South Sudan Start First Talks since Conflict

Top negotiators for Sudan and South Sudan met Tuesday for their first talks since deadly border fighting last month took them to the brink of war, even as Juba accused Khartoum of fresh air strikes.

Teams from both sides are in the Ethiopian capital for African Union-led talks which were stalled by heavy clashes last month, the worst fighting since the South won independence last July.

Khartoum stressed its "commitment to reach a negotiated settlement to all issues of differences" and promised "its full adherence to peace and stability between the two countries," it said in a statement released as talks began.

Sudan added it hoped the talks would mark a "new chapter" in relations "away from conflict and warring."

Southern President Salva Kiir said ahead of the talks that "amicable dialogue on the outstanding issues with Khartoum is the only option for peace."

The U.N. Security Council earlier this month ordered both sides to cease fighting and return to talks or face possible sanctions.

Idriss Mohammed Abdel Qadir from Khartoum and Pagan Amum from Juba began the talks mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and also attended by the U.S. special envoy on Sudan, Princeton Lyman.

However, Amum said Sudanese war planes bombed border areas in three Southern states -- Unity, Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal -- for the fourth straight day.

"Today as we speak they bombed us," Amum told reporters hours before the talks started. Nevertheless he said he was optimistic talks would produce results.

Sudan has denied attacking the South and the raids could not be confirmed independently. Khartoum has in turn accused the South of alleged cross-border incursions, which it said broke the U.N. order to halt hostilities.

Khartoum, in an apparent peace gesture, reported it had pulled out troops from the contested Abyei region to end a year-long occupation, a Lebanon-sized area whose ownership is key for both Juba and Khartoum.

Sudanese troops stormed the region in May 2011, forcing some 110,000 people to flee southwards, where the majority remains in impoverished camps.

"SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) deployed out of Abyei area this evening and they gave the military compound there to U.N. peacekeepers," said the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC), which is close to the security apparatus.

Diplomatic sources said the pullout involved about 300 troops.

"We declared yesterday that we're going to redeploy so we are going to do whatever we declared," Khartoum's negotiator Qadir said as talks broke for the night late Tuesday, refusing to comment on the progress of discussions.

But Amum rejected Khartoum's reported pullout, claiming "Sudan did not withdraw from Abyei...up to today they are still in Abyei."

Abyei was to have held a referendum in January 2011 on whether it belonged with the north or South, but that ballot was stalled over disagreement on who could vote.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July after a 2005 peace deal ended one of Africa's longest civil wars, which killed about two million people.

But tensions soon flared again over a series of unresolved issues, including the border, the future of disputed territories and oil.

The South separated with about 75 percent of the former united Sudan's oil production, but Juba still depends on the north's pipeline and Red Sea port to export its crude.

A protracted dispute over fees for use of that infrastructure led South Sudan in January to shut its oil production after accusing the north of theft.

Despite the tensions at the close of the first day of talks, Amum said negotiations between the two former civil war foes would resume Wednesday.

"We are ready to continue," he said.