Sudan said on Saturday it had reached a deal with South Sudan on oil transit fees, a first step towards ending a dispute which had brought the hostile neighbours close to war. However, it also said it wanted a border security agreement before oil flows resumed.
The share-out of oil revenues was one of the biggest issues left unresolved when South Sudan became independent in July last year, under a 2005 agreement that ended decades of civil war. Fighting along the ill-defined border flared up in April.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the oil agreement showed a “new spirit of compromise on both sides” but the two sides, deeply mistrustful of each other, have often not implemented previous agreements. – (Reuters)