The two main parties in Sudan"s north and south agreed the terms of a controversial referendum on southern independence on Sunday, defusing a row that threatened a peace deal in the oil-producing nation, according to Reuters. The south"s dominant Sudan People"s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the northern National Congress Party (NCP) have been at loggerheads over arrangements for the referendum and other looming votes, all promised as part of a 2005 accord that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war. "We have reached agreement on three very important laws which have been the grounds for serious disagreements between the two parties," SPLM secretary general Pagan Amum told reporters. Amum said the laws would set out the terms of the southern referendum, a separate ballot on whether the oil-producing region of Abyei should join the south, and vaguer consultation exercises for the populations of the border regions of Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan. The NCP and the SPLM, who fought each other during the civil war, joined a national coalition government under the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
