The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan have reaffirmed their commitment to setting up a buffer zone on their shared border and resuming oil exports.
African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki said both sides had agreed “unconditionally” to implement a deal first struck in September.
Presidents Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan and Salva Kiir of South Sudan smiled and shook hands, but made no comment.
President Salva Kiir had told his security officials on Friday to prepare to defend the country from aggression from neighbouring Sudan, shortly before heading to a summit in Ethiopia.
Khartoum has long insisted that there can be no forward movement on any of the sticking points without Juba ending its alleged support to Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) fighting the Sudanese army in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Juba denies Khartoum’s accusations and calls for executing the agreements and particularly the one regarding oil exports given the dire economic situation in both countries.
The landlocked South Sudan was meant to resume oil production last November with the first exports to hit markets by January.
But Sudan’s insistence on implementing security arrangements first hindered the resumption of oil production in the newborn nation.
South Sudan is to pay Sudan to route its crude through northern pipelines ending a row that led to the shutdown of the entire southern output of 350,000 barrels a day.
Following a series of meetings on Friday and Saturday in the Ethiopian capital the African Union mediation team released a statement announcing an agreement on the establishment of Abyei Area Administration, Abyei Area Council and the Abyei Area Police Service.
The two sides are to continue negotiations on the final status of Abyei and the issue of the referendum and eligibility criteria.
Sudan rejected a proposal submitted by the AU mediation and supported by the AU Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) which calls for the holding the referendum next October without the participation of the Arab Misseriya tribesmen.
The AU had demanded a solution for Abyei by September and then said it would make a binding proposal before giving the parties until December 2012 to do a deal.
Both countries are also to implement the cooperation agreement particularly the security portion and the mediation team will come up with a time matrix for that on January 13th.
The latter is the date when the Joint Security Committee will meet.
It was also agreed that the work of the Joint Committee on the establishment of demilitarized zone would resume without delay.
The committee met in Addis Ababa last December agreed to set up the buffer zone and resume talks this month.
At the time the Sudanese defense minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein said Juba agreed for the first time to discuss their relationship with SPLM-N.
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