Southern Sudan may be a country by July

WASHINGTON, United States (AP):

The United States said yesterday it would recognise an independent Southern Sudan and review its designation of Sudan's government in Khartoum as a state sponsor of terrorism after that African nation accepted the south's vote to secede.

Election officials disclosed yesterday that more than 98 per cent of ballots in the January 9 vote were in favour of independence, meaning Southern Sudan will become the world's newest country in July.

"I congratulate the people of Southern Sudan for a successful and inspiring referendum in which an overwhelmingly majority of voters chose independence," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "I am therefore pleased to announce the intention of the United States to formally recognise Southern Sudan as a sovereign, independent state in July 2011."

Obama called it "another step forward in Africa's long journey toward justice and democracy".

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commended the Sudan government for accepting the outcome.

Clinton said in a statement that the designation will be lifted if Sudan does not support terrorism for the preceding six months and provides assurance it will not do so in future. It must also fully implement a 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade civil war between the north and south that killed more than two million people.

Clinton urged both northern and southern leaders to continue to work together toward full implementation of the peace agreement and post-referendum arrangements to ensure they become two "viable states living alongside each other in peace."