Bashir suspends S Sudan trip after fighting

Juba/Khartoum - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has suspended plans to fly to South Sudan to hold talks over the countries' oil and border disputes after fighting broke out between the two nations' armies, Sudan's state radio reported on Monday.

Clashes broke out earlier on Monday in several disputed border areas, both sides said.

Bashir suspended his visit after an attack on the oil-producing area of Heglig, parts of which are claimed by both countries, Sudan radio said in a text-message alert. It gave no further details and officials in Khartoum could not be reached for comment.

Both countries have been at loggerheads over a series of sensitive issues since South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July, taking with it most of the country's known oil reserves.

The neighbours have yet to agree on the position of their 1 800-km shared border or how much the landlocked south should pay to export oil - the lifeblood of both economies - through Sudan.

Bashir had been planning to fly to the southern capital Juba on April 3 to meet his southern counterpart Salva Kiir to try and resolve their disputes.

South Sudan's army, or SPLA, on Monday accused Sudan of bombing the disputed border areas of Jau and Pan Akuach and then moving ground forces against another area called Teshwin.

“After repulsing the attack, the SPLA pursued the withdrawing SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) force and they captured two bases of SAF between Heglig and Teshwin,” SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer said.

“This is a self-defense measure by SPLA to defend itself against aggressors,” he said.

Aguer said parts of Heglig were now under control of the southern army, a statement denied by Sudan.

Sudan's army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad told state news agency SUNA many SPLA soldiers had been killed in the fighting in Heglig. SPLA forces later withdrew towards the border, he added.

Sudan's government spokesman Abdullah Ali Masar accused South Sudan of carrying out an attack on Heglig with the help of rebels from the Darfur region, SUNA reported. Darfur is the scene of a separate near decade-long insurgency against the Khartoum government.

South Sudan secured its independence in a referendum promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north. Each country has regularly accused the other of supporting rebels on either side of the border but direct confrontations are rare.

Sudan's army and SPLM-North rebels have been fighting in South Kordofan since June. Clashes spread in September to Sudan's Blue Nile state which also borders South Sudan.

Both South Kordofan and Blue Nile are home to large communities who sided with the south during the civil war but were left on the Sudan side of the border after the secession. Khartoum says the SPLM-North is supported by South Sudan, an accusation dismissed by the southern government.

South Sudan shut down its oil production in January to protest against Khartoum's seizure of some crude. Sudan said it took the oil to make up for what it called unpaid transit fees. - Retuers