Khartoum:
Sudan's Foreign Minister assured the UN Security Council on Saturday that the government is committed to holding a referendum on southern independence that is expected to split the country in two.
Addressing Security Council members wrapping up a fact-finding trip to Sudan and Uganda, Ali Karti said the government's sole condition was no outside interference in the referendum.
"We are fully committed to holding the referendum on time," Karti told the visiting members of the Council, the UN's most powerful arm. "We want it on time, but it must be arranged properly.... We do not want any interference in the referendum, this is the only condition."
Underlining the tensions surrounding the vote, clashes erupted between southern pro-secession demonstrators and pro-unity northerners staging a rally in Khartoum, witnesses said. Some 70 southerners were arrested, and at least five people were wounded, according to the witnesses.
Preparations for the January 9 referendum have proceeded haltingly amid political and logistical obstacles, and the southerners have accused the northerners of stalling, warning of violence if the vote is delayed.
The referendum is required by a 2005 peace agreement that ended the 21-year civil war between Sudan's predominantly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the largely Christian-animist south.
The vote is open to all southerners whether they live in the north or the south, but determining who is eligible to vote has also been a source of tension.
Mark Lyall Grant, the British ambassador to the UN, told reporters today that the Council wants to see a concerted push to resolve the many "key outstanding issues," such as funding and citizenship, before a vote can be held.