Fighting in Sudan oil town kills 21 soldiers-army

The army accused the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), from semi-autonomous South Sudan, of attacking its positions in the town on Tuesday -- while a southern minister accused a northern officer of sparking the conflict.

The assault, which followed a week of skirmishes sparked by a local dispute, has raised fears for a 2005 north-south peace deal that ended two decades of civil war. . . .

At stake is control of energy revenues and pipelines from oil fields around Abyei.

An international analyst, who asked not to be named, said the nearby Heglig oil fields, run by Chinese-led consortium Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, produced about 250,000 barrels a day, roughly half of Sudan's entire output.