Conflict: an SPLA soldier stands guard at a UN base in Abyei
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- Sudan seeks arbitration over oil rift
- Clashes in Sudanese oilpatch
- Tensions increase inSudan
- Khartoum rift amid SPLM exit
- Cracks widen again in Sudan
- GNU oil revenue pledge to SPLM
- Clashes erupt outside Sudan oil town
- Sudan peace pact signed
- Sudan puts blocks on offer
Sudan rivals agree to stick by Abyei ruling
Northern and southern Sudan have agreed to abide by international arbitration on the status of the oil-rich Abyei region which both sides want to control, according to reports.
The BBC said a deal was reached in Washington at talks mediated by US President Barack Obama's envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration.
Both sides said they would accept a ruling due next month from the Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
The Abyei dispute had threatened to derail a peace deal signed four years ago which ended a 22-year civil war.
Both the north and former rebels from the south want the oil fields around Abyei to be part of their own territories, and they cannot agree on the boundary for the area.
Officials from South's Sudan People's Liberation Movement and President Omar al-Bashir's National Congress Party were joined by representatives from 20 countries in Washington yesterday for talks aimed at keeping the Comprehensive Peace Agreement on track.
"Time is urgent," Gration told the BBC yesterday. "It's time to move forward. It's time to work together to bring peace to this country that's permanent and lasting."
Relations between the former foes in Sudan remain tense, with national elections due in 2010 and a referendum on whether the south should secede set for 2011.
The long civil war - separate from the Darfur conflict -between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south ended in 2005, after claiming 1.5 million lives.