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Sudan to consider north-south confederation after referendum
4:06 AM
On Saturday northern and southern Sudanese leaders started formal negotiations on how they would form a confederation or a common market in case of southerners chose to declare independence in an upcoming referendum. In six months citizens of the country's oil-producing south vote on whether to stay part of the country or split away as an independent state - a plebiscite promised in a 2005 accord that put an end decades of north-south civil war. Leaders discussed how they would divide oil revenues and other issues after the poll. "We considered the possibility of the creation of two independent countries which negotiate a framework of cooperation, which extends to the establishment of shared governance institutions in a confederal arrangement," Alarabiya.net. quotes former South African president Thabo Mbeki as saying.