Deal agreed on Sudan oil region

Oil tensions flare in central Sudan

A deal has been reached between north and south Sudan over the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei.

The two sides have agreed on an interim administration with a southerner named as chief administrator and a member of a local Arab clan as his deputy.

Fighting in May between northern and southern troops drove 50,000 people from their homes in the region.

Many feared the violence would re-ignite the bloody civil war that ended in 2005 with a peace deal.

The BBC's Amber Henshaw in the capital, Khartoum, says the appointments come after years of deadlock.

Arop Moyak, a southerner from Sudan's People Liberation Movement, will be chief administrator of Abyei, with Rahama Abdel Rahman al-Nour of the northern National Congress Party his deputy, our correspondent says.

In June, the sides agreed to send a joint force to the area to restore security and they agreed to get international help to resolve the underlying boundary issue.

The government in Khartoum and officials in the semi-autonomous south have both claimed the oil-rich area as their own.