JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan accused Sudan on Wednesday of bombing and shelling seven areas on the southern side of their disputed border in the last 48 hours, calling the acts a violation of a U.N.-backed ceasefire that should have begun on Saturday.
The latest allegations indicated that continuing tensions between the two old civil war foes, which erupted into border fighting last month, could hamper international efforts to push them to resume negotiations on various outstanding disputes.
A South Sudan military spokesman, Kella Dual Kueth, told reporters Sudanese forces attacked South Sudanese territory in Bahr el Ghazal, Unity and Upper Nile states on Monday and Tuesday, using MiG jet fighters, Antonov bombers and ground shelling.
"Of course, automatically this is a violation (of the ceasefire). If we have a compromise and we are at peace and then I go and knife you in the back, what does that mean?" Kueth said.
In Khartoum, the Sudanese army spokesman did not answer repeated calls to comment on the allegations.
Addressing Sudanese parliamentarians on Wednesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti said Khartoum would cooperate with a U.N. Security Council resolution which called on both sides to commit to an African Union (AU) peace roadmap.
"We ... will stick to the Security Council resolution ... Why be afraid of dealing with the Security Council resolution? Dealing with it positively gives a chance for our friends to defend us," Karti told lawmakers.
Limited access to the remote border areas makes it difficult to verify often contradictory statements from both sides.
AT ODDS OVER OIL, BORDERS, CITIZENSHIP
Simmering disputes over oil exports, border demarcation and citizenship, stemming from the South's secession as an independent nation last year, bubbled over into direct clashes between the two rival armies in April.
As the conflict escalated, the United Nations condemned Sudanese air strikes on South Sudan's territory and international pressure forced South Sudanese forces to withdraw from the oil-rich area of Heglig which they had occupied.
The fighting prompted the Security Council to pass a resolution last week threatening sanctions if the two sides did not follow the AU roadmap, which stipulates a ceasefire and a return to negotiations.
Both sides have made statements warily accepting the proposed peace plan but say they reserve the right to defend themselves if attacked.
The AU previously mediated talks between Juba and Khartoum in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.
"This will sabotage (a peace deal) because if they are fighting, who will listen in Addis Ababa about the need for peace?" Kueth asked.
On Friday, South Sudan also accused Sudan of attacking its positions in an oil region. An army spokesman in Sudan denied the charge.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters on Wednesday that peacekeepers had visited two South Sudanese sites allegedly bombed on Friday.
"A (U.N.) mission patrol visited Panakuach on May 7 and the patrol confirmed at least two craters there consistent with reported bombings. A patrol to Lalop on May 4 also confirmed three craters caused by recent bombings and two injured civilians, one woman and one child," he said.
Nesirky said the United Nations was aware of reports of further bombings overnight, "but what we have confirmed so far are ... the incidents that took place on May 4."
A senior Western diplomat said on Wednesday that it was often difficult to verify allegations South Sudan and Sudan are making against each other. But he said that if the two sides fail to withdraw from the disputed border area of Abyei by May 16 as demanded by the council, talk of sanctions would begin.
In its May 2 resolution the Security Council also gave the two sides a 48-hour ultimatum to halt all violence and three months to resolve all disputes under threat of sanctions.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has called on Sudan to stop all cross-border attacks, including what she called "provocative" aerial bombardments.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland in Juba, Yara Bayoumy in Khartoum and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Cynthia Osterman)
