We don't want new war, says Sudan FM

Ankara - Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti said on Wednesday that the government would not object if the country's south votes to secede, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"If the majority want secession (in the referendum), we will accept it," Karti told a joint press conference here with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

South Sudan is holding a referendum on January 09 on whether it wants independence or wishes to remain part of a united Sudan.

Karti's comments came a day after Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said he would not accept an alternative to unity, without specifying his reaction in case of a "yes" vote in the referendum.

"We do not want a new war," Karti said, underlining that there were many issues to be resolved in case of secession, including the fate of the large number of southern Sudanese who live in the north, demarcation, the distribution of resources and the country's debt.

The January referendum was one of the provisions of a 2005 peace deal which ended southern Sudan's a two-decade civil war against the north.

The war claimed the lives of some 1.5 million people either directly through conflict, or through disease and famine.

- AFP