Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Tuesday declared a two-week ceasefire in South Kordofan state which has been rocked since June by violent clashes between the Sudanese army and Nuba rebels.

"I declare a unilateral two-week ceasefire," Bashir said in a speech broadcast on state radio during his visit to Kadugli, the capital of the state of South Kordofan.

The United States retained Iran and its ally Syria as well as Sudan and Cuba on a list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism Thursday, after blacklisting the countries the previous year.

In an annual report, the State Department said "Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010," citing "financial, material and logistic support" for militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Allegations of summary executions, aerial bombardments of civilians and enforced disappearances in Sudan's South Kordofan could constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes, the U.N. said Monday.

"If substantiated (the allegations) could amount to crimes against humanity, or war crimes for which individual criminal responsibility may be sought," according to the preliminary results of a U.N. investigation into a series of incidents in South Kordofan between June 5 and 30.

Sudan has granted a petroleum exploration license to China, Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti said after his visiting Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and President Omar al-Bashir held talks in Khartoum.

"President Bashir has granted the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) three promising new petroleum blocs and offered a partnership with the national petroleum company Sudapet in the fields where it operates," Karti said late Monday.

Newly independent South Sudan swore in its MPs on Saturday, two days ahead of parliament's opening session, with the speaker calling for cooperation regardless of background or political affiliation.

"You are the founders of the first ever parliament of the Republic of South Sudan," James Wani Igga told the National Legislative Assembly.

Leaders from Sudan and South Sudan signed an agreement Saturday in Addis Ababa to assign 300 Ethiopian troops to monitor the border separating the two countries.

The U.N.-sanctioned troops are tasked with reporting and resolving disputes along the border. They will be assigned from the disputed Abyei region, where the first of 4,200 Ethiopian peacekeepers arrived last week.

Leaders of Sudan's main opposition group, whose men are fighting government troops in South Kordofan, on Saturday rejected calls to disarm and said they would negotiate only via an outside third party.

The northern branch of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, the ruling party of South Sudan, in a statement also accused the government of seeking to destroy north-south relations just two weeks after formal southern independence.

Iran "respects" South Sudan's choice of independence, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, less than two weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized partition of Africa's largest nation.

"Now that developments have led to the formation of an independent government in South Sudan, Iran respects the southerners' choice," said a ministry statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Sudan's government and a Darfur rebel group, the Liberation and Justice Movement, on Thursday signed a peace accord in Doha, as a key rebel faction rejected the deal.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and leaders of Chad, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Eritrea and Qatar attended the signing of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, a fruit of talks sponsored by the African Union, United Nations and Arab League.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that the Jewish state recognizes South Sudan and wished the world's newest nation "much success."

"Yesterday, a new state was born, South Sudan. I hereby announce that Israel recognizes the Republic of South Sudan," he said. "We wish it much success."