Sudan to 'mobilise its army'

Sudan said it would mobilise its army against South Sudan yesterday, calling a halt to talks with Juba after an attack on an oil field vital to the north's economy.

With South Sudan accusing Sudan of bombing a village on the southern side of their 1800km border, the African Union intervened over clashes that threaten to spark a full-blown conflict between the former civil war foes.

South Sudan, which seceded in July, has been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with Sudan over oil payments and other vital issues as fighting intensifies in the countries' ill-defined border region.

Sudan said the South had attacked Heglig, a disputed area vital to Sudan's economy because of an oil field accounting for about half of its 115000 barrel-a-day output.

"The government of Sudan announces that it will oppose this flagrantly aggressive behaviour by all legitimate ways and means," Sudan's Information Ministry said.

Following the incursion, parliament ordered a halt to negotiations with the South aimed at resolving their disputes, Sudan's state media, SUNA, said.

SUNA said Sudan would order a general mobilisation and quoted Defence Minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein as saying the army was capable of controlling the situation.

It said Sudan would halt all talks sponsored by the African Union with Juba and withdraw its team from Addis Ababa with immediate effect.

The African Union called for the "immediate and unconditional withdrawal" of South Sudan's army from Heglig.

South Sudan Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said the Sudanese air force had bombed the village of Abiemnom, in South Sudan yesterday, wounding four people, including a child.