World News : Sudan says cost no bar to recapture of oil region

NAIROBI/KHARTOUM (World News) - Sudan said on Tuesday the cost of a full-blown conflict with South Sudan would not deter it from recapturing the disputed Heglig oilfield, and that newly tapped oilfields would help to sustain its struggling economy.

South Sudan took control of the contested oil-producing Heglig region last week, prompting Sudan's parliament to brand its former civil war foe an "enemy" on Monday and to call for a swift recapture of the flat savanna region.

Both countries' faltering economies are likely to be important factors in the conflict's outcome.

"Despite the high cost of the war, despite the destruction that the war can cause ... our options are very limited. We can tolerate some sacrifice, until we can liberate our land," Sudan's ambassador to Kenya, Kamal Ismail Saeed, said.

"So from our side, yes, it is expensive but that doesn't deter us or that doesn't stop us from exerting all effort to liberate our land," he told reporters in Nairobi.

"We have been in war without oil for several years and we survived ... As a mat ter of fact ... the good news (is) we have developed other sources and fields of oil and that will really compensate our loss."

Fighting over oil payments and territory has withered the combined crude output of both countries.

The Heglig field is vital to Sudan's economy because it accounted for half the 115,000 barrels per day output that remained in its control when South Sudan seceded in July. The field's output has stopped due to the fighting, officials say.

The landlocked South had already closed its 350,000 bpd output after failing to agree how much it should pay to export via Sudan's pipelines, a Red Sea port and other facilities.

The latest clashes have also dampened hopes that Sudan and South Sudan can reach a deal soon on disputed issues such as demarcation of their 1,800-km (1,200-mile) border, division of debt and the status of citizens in each other's territory.

The loss of Heglig, a shock to many Sudanese, has also stirred tensions in the north. Sudan's interior minister said on Tuesday the police college had dismissed its South Sudanese students after "their violation of police regulations and their celebration of the occupation of Heglig".

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said she was alarmed by the South's "unwarranted" occupation of Heglig and urged both sides to halt the violence, including the North's bombing campaign against the South.

"I condemn the indiscriminate aerial bombing by Sudanese forces in civilian areas in South Sudan, including in Mayom and Bentiu in Unity State, resulting in the deaths of at least 8 civilians and many injuries since Saturday," she said in a statement.

"In the past week we have seen an intensific ation of the use of Antonovs as well as jetfighters dropping bombs and launching rocket attacks, including in areas dangerously close to the offices of international organizations. Such deplorable attacks must stop immediately."

South Sudan's military (SPLA) spokesman said its positions were bombed on Monday, but no clashes were reported on Tuesday.

"We are aware they are trying to advance, and the SPLA is ready to receive them," spokesman Philip Aguer said, describing the conflict as a "limited war". Sudan's army spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

NEW OILFIELDS

Saeed insisted Khartoum could weather the latest conflict, which has sent food prices soaring and hit the currency as officials try to make up for the sudden loss in revenues.

He said production from new fields in th e west of the Kordofan region, in Darfur and in the states of White Nile and Blue Nile would offset much of the loss of Heglig's output.

"We used to produce 115,000 barrels a day before the attack, we lost about 40,000, and now we'll get another 30,000."

South Sudan insists Heglig is rightfully part of the South and says it will not withdraw its troops unless the United Nations deploys a neutral force to monitor a ceasefire. Saeed said that was unacceptable.

"They have two options: either to withdraw very quickly or withdraw. We will reserve the right to use all means at our access to kick them out of there, and we will do it," he said.

"They will be thrown out of there very soon."

Pillay and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm over reports of a buildup of militia forces in the disputed Abyei border region.

The U.N. statement did not say where the reports were from or give details but called it a violation of a June agreement in which both sides said they would withdraw forces from the area.

Ban called on Khartoum to "ensure the full and immediate withdrawal of these elements from the area".

Abyei, which is prized for its fertile grazing land and produces some oil, was a major battleground during Sudan's civil war and is symbolically potent for both sides. Both countries lay claim to it.

Khartoum seized Abyei in May last year after a southern attack on an army convoy, triggering an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians. The Security Council authorised the deployment of 3,800 U.N. peacekeepers in Abyei in June.

Some 2 million people died in Sudan's civil war, wa ged for all but a few years between 1955 and 2005 over conflicts of ideology, ethnicity, oil and religion.