Clinton pushes Sudan on independence vote

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Sudanese authorities Tuesday to make up for lost time in preparing for an independence referendum early next year for the Southern Sudan.

On the UN's World Peace Day, Clinton met with Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha to impress upon him the need for a well-organized and peaceful vote in January. With just more than 100 days until the referendum, preparations are far behind schedule. There are also fears that a vote splitting the south and north would reignite a bloody civil war that ended in 2005.

Clinton's talks with Taha come ahead of a high-level UN session on Sudan that President Barack Obama will attend on Friday. Taha and the president of southern Sudan, Salva Kiir, will participate.

Sudan activists have warned that diplomacy is the only way to prevent renewed civil war.

Underscoring the concern, Clinton and the foreign ministers of Britain and Norway released a letter yesterday that they sent to Taha and Kiir last week, appealing to them "to take swift action to ensure" a peaceful vote. "There remains an enormous amount to be done, and work must be accelerated to make up for lost time," they said in the letter.

Southern Sudan, which is predominantly animist and Christian, is scheduled to vote on independence Jan. 9. The Obama administration has said it is "inevitable" the south will declare independence. Given the south's substantial oil resources, many worry that the predominantly Muslim north will find it difficult to accept an independent south.