Sudan, South Sudan presidents meet for first time

The Presidents of Sudan and South Sudan held late Saturday night their first private talks since a border dispute brought their countries close to conflict in April. President Omar al-Bashir met with his counterpart Salva Kiir at a luxury hotel in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the African Union summit. Sudan's chief negotiator Pagan Amum told reporters after the meeting that the two leaders had held hour-long talks. "They met today and it was a good meeting," he said. No information has been released about what the two men spoke about during their meeting, but they shook hands publicly for the first time at the end of it. The African Union's Peace and Security Council on Saturday urged the governments of Khartoum and Juba to settle their differences on oil and border demarcation before the August 2 deadline set by the United Nations. Amum said he was hopeful a deal could be reached by the looming deadline. The UN introduced its three-month deadline after cross-border clashes centered on the oil-rich region of Heglig brought Sudan and South Sudan close to all-out war in April. Among other issues, their border has not been finalised and there are disagreements over oilfields, transport payments and divisions of the national debt. The last official talks between Presidents Kiir and Bashir were at the previous AU summit in January.