The Chairman of Peace and Unity in the National Assembly, a leading member of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, Hassan Ramadan Lako, affirmed that the SPLM is keen in sustaining peace and dealing with the adverse movements, considering them to have additional opinion on unity that is left at the choice of southern voters.

The Government of Southern Sudan said it has reached a compromise with the Federal government over the remittance of oil revenues for the South in US Dollars. The Undersecretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in the Government of Southern Sudan, Salvatore Garang Mabiordit, said that Khartoum will now remit the oil revenues in hard currency instead of the Sudanese Pounds.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Karti, has said that talks between China, Sudan and Kenya will start Monday in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Kenya's Vice President and Manager of China's National Petroleum Company (CNPC), one of the biggest oil firms operating in Sudan, will participate in talks to discuss guarantees of continuity for CNPC's investment in Sudan after southern Sudan referendum.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Karti, held talks on Sunday afternoon with the U.S. Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, to make arrangements for the CPA partners to meet the American officials in New York. Karti added further that they discussed the positive outcome of the upcoming New York's meeting for the sake of Darfur and Southern Sudan.

The Government of Southern Sudan has allocated 30 million Sudanese Pounds for repatriating southerners from Egypt and northern Sudan to enable them to participate in the upcoming 2011 referendum. Southern Sudan coordinator for repatriation, Kormach Chol Badong, told Radio Miraya that 25 millions SDG of the grant will be used for repatriating southerners from the north, and the remaining amount for repatriating refugees from Egypt.

The Vice President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) Riak Machar said the southern government and all Churches in Sudan should join efforts to ensure peaceful conduct of the upcoming referendum. He mentioned that the southern government is working hard on referendum preparations, and urged all the citizens to register when the registration commences, and make sure they turn up and vote.

The Government of Southern Sudan is urging the World Bank to support Southern Sudan in the development of its agricultural resources as to enable the South not to be solely dependent on its oil revenues. Following a meeting between the South Sudan Council of Ministers and the Vice President of the World Bank, the Southern Minister of Finance, David Deng Athorbi, said that oil revenues form more than 90% of South Sudan's budget.

MAGGIE FICK Associated Press   

JUBA, Sudan (AP) — Aid officials say Southern Sudanese troops are behind a spike in attacks on humanitarian workers, including the looting of food.

Aid workers are increasingly concerned that access to needy populations may be further restricted as a January vote on independence for the south approaches. The

UN News Centre

13 September 2010 –Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today he has convened a high-level meeting at the United Nations to discuss the situation in Sudan as it prepares for a vote on the self-determination of the south of the country. The meeting will be held on 24 September on the sidelines of the annual high-level segment of the General Assembly, Mr. Ban told reporters in New York.

“We have to ensure that the two referenda, regardless of what the results may be, should be conducted in a transparent and peaceful manner. This will have larger regional implications,” the Secretary-General said. “This is almost the last opportunity for world leaders to discuss how we can make sure that this referendum will be successfully and transparently conducted.”

The referenda are provided for in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed in 2005 and formally ended two decades of civil war between the northern-based Government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in the south. Following the agreement, the SPLM formed the autonomous Government of Southern Sudan.

Inhabitants of southern Sudan will vote on 9 January on whether to secede from Sudan or remain united with the rest of the country. On the same day, residents of Abyei area in central Sudan will vote separately on whether to retain Abyei’s special administrative status in the north or become part of southern Sudan.

In response to a reporter’s question, Mr. Ban said he was happy that United States President Barack Obama “has made it clear publicly that he’s going to participate in the high-level meeting on Sudan.” In a related development, David Gressly, the Regional Coordinator for Southern Sudan for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has concluded a two-day visit to Warrap and Western Bahr El-Ghazal states by inaugurating the peacekeeping mission’s office in Kuajok, the capital of Warrap.

During his trip, Mr. Gressly met with Warrap Governor Nyandeng Malek and Western Bahr El-Ghazal Governor Riziq Zakaria Hassan, as well as members of the two states’ referendum high committees and assured them that UNMIS will provide robust logistical support and technical advice on the referenda.

“In an effort to strengthen UNMIS presence before the conduct of referendum, I am happy today to open officially the Warrap Team Site,” said Mr. Gressly, adding that the facility in Kuajok will work closely with the referenda support bases that the mission plans to establish in all of the state’s seven counties.