Khartoum not paying for border demarcation: south Sudan

JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - The semi-autonomous government in southern Sudan on Friday accused the Arab north of underfunding a key committee tasked with delineating the border between the two former warring parties."Only 7.5 million dollars was released for the committee," southern information minister Changson Chang told reporters.

"There were some works that couldn't be completed because money was not released," Chang said. "Documents, maps from the Republic of Egypt were not released because some money was not released to the committee."

North-south border demarcation is considered vital to the 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war and to a scheduled referendum in 2011, which would determine whether the south separates from the north.

Fighting last month in Abyei, the most contested border region, was seen as the biggest threat to the Sudanese peace process that ended a devastating war in which more than 1.5 million people were killed.

Chang spoke after a day-long briefing to the southern cabinet by members of the Sudan border demarcation committee.

Experts consider information from Egypt, as well as former colonial rulers Britain and the Ottoman Empire, key to the border demarcation.

Failure to demarcate the border was a factor in southern ex-rebels pulling out of the national coalition government in late last year, which prompted Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to order the work to start in February.

"Money should be released to carry out activities, including getting documents from Cairo," said Chang.

Under the 2005 peace deal, the south was offered a six-year transitional period of regional autonomy and participation in a unity government until a 2011 referendum on whether to break way.