UN Council demands end to hostilities between rival Sudans

The UN Security Council on Tuesday demanded that rival Sudan and South Sudan end border hostilities and head off moves to war.

The 15-nation council issued a forceful statement warning the two countries, amid mounting fears of an all-out conflict as they wrangle over oil revenues, their border and support for rebels.

The council expressed "grave concern about reports of repeated incidents of cross-border violence between Sudan and South Sudan, including troop movements, support to proxy forces and aerial bombardments," said a statement read by Britain's UN ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, council president for March.

"The Security Council demands that all parties cease military operations in the border areas and put an end to the cycle of violence."

The council also demanded that both governments "take no action that would undermine the security and stability of the other, including through any direct or indirect form of support to armed groups in the other's territory."

Sudan was split into two countries in July last year but have been in constant dispute since. Before the divorce, the north and south fought a two decade civil war in which more than two million people died.

Sudan's forces overran the disputed territory of Abyei in May last year and have been accused of staging air attacks on the South. The Khartoum government in turn accuses the South's government of backing rebels in its South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.

The two sides resumed talks in the Ethiopian capital on Tuesday on how to share oil revenues. Seventy-five percent of the oil is now controlled by the South but the oil has to be transported through the north.

Amid a dispute over processing fees, South Sudan has halted production after accusing the north of stealing the oil.

The Security Council called on the two sides to "agree an immediate cessation of hostilities" and stick to a February 10 non-aggression pact mediated by the African Union.

The council said it also "demands" that the Sudan government and rebels in South Kordofan and Blue Nile "cooperate fully with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies" so aid can be brought to the populations of the two states on the border with the south.

The UN and other aid agencies have said that there could soon be a famine in parts of South Kordofan and Blue Nile controlled by rebels once allied to the south unless access is soon given.

The two sides continue to blame each for the tensions.

"We have not started a war. Nonetheless, we were pushed into this. We were forced into this," Sudan's UN ambassador Daff-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told the council.

Later he told reporters: "We will do our utmost best to chase any aggressor who steps inside our territory."

South Sudan's envoy, David Buom Choat, said his country had been "unfairly accused" of interfering in the conflict between rebels and the government on the northern side of the border.