Military leaders from north and south Sudan have agreed there would be "no return to war" after more than a week of bloody clashes over the disputed oil town of Abyei, a senior northern official said on Tuesday.
Didiri Mohamed Ahmed, the northern official in charge of Abyei, said a meeting of officers had agreed to end a build-up of troops around the central Sudanese town and laid out a plan to replace them with new joint north-south military units.
But officials from the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) played down the military progress, saying huge political differences still remained over the demarcation of Abyei and its nearby oil fields.
Tens of thousand of civilians fled Abyei last week during clashes between northern and southern troops, prompting fears of further conflict.
Northern and southern officials have blamed each other for starting the fighting that left more than 20 northern soldiers and an unknown number of southerners dead.
SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum said on Monday Sudan was on the brink of a fresh civil war following the clashes.
Both the north and the south covet Abyei, which is close to oilfields that produce up to a half of Sudan's daily 500,000-barrel output, and have remained at loggerheads over its boundary and administration.
The borders of the region were left undecided in a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war and created a coalition north-south government.
Didiri Mohamed Ahmed said senior military leaders from both sides met on Tuesday for a session of the country's Ceasefire Political Committee, observed by the United Nations.
