Dispute over oil portfolio holds up unity cabinet

Aug 28, 2005 (Khartoum) — The Sudanese regime and its former southern foes were engaged in intense discussions over the line-up of a national unity government Sunday, with both sides vying for the crucial oil portfolio.

‘I expect the government to be announced by the end of the week,’ presidential spokesman Mahjub Fadul Badri told AFP.

The national unity government was supposed to have been in place by Aug 9, but its formation was disrupted by the death in a July 30 helicopter crash of southern leader and first vice president John Garang.

While agreements have been reached on the distribution of most portfolios according to power-sharing quotas set in a landmark January peace deal, the energy and mining ministry was still being hotly contested.

Both the ruling National Congress and the former southern rebels want control over oil resources, one of the main factors that fuelled the 21-year civil war between the Muslim-dominated Khartoum regime and the mainly Christian or animist south.

AFX International Focus/ST