* New plan aims to smooth way for January referendum
* Debt help, diplomatic normalization dangled
* U.S. also mulling punitive options
By Andrew Quinn
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The United States has offered Sudan a package of new incentives including trade, investment, debt relief and full diplomatic normalization if it resolves outstanding issues over Darfur and a vote on southern secession next year, Washington's Sudan envoy said on Tuesday.
Scott Gration said the package, which holds out the threat of additional sanctions against the oil-rich African nation if progress is not made, is aimed at persuading all sides to iron out problems ahead of a planned Jan. 9 independence referendum in southern Sudan.
"What we're looking at is this historic moment," Gration told Reuters in an interview, adding that any delays or setbacks to the vote could result in renewed conflict between the Khartoum government and the south of the country.
"We're in a time when we really need to act now to prevent bad things from happening," he said.
Gration took the new plan -- essentially a roadmap for the the normalization of Khartoum's international relations -- to officials in both southern Sudan and Khartoum over the weekend and said it was well received.
The package marks a new phase of the Obama administration's push to resolve decades of conflict in Sudan, a vast state which has been riven by civil war and a separate rebellion in the western region of Darfur.
U.S. President Barack Obama will attend a U.N. summit on Sudan on Sept. 24, at which the United States is expected to push for more support for its Sudan proposals.
The United States placed Sudan on its list of state sponsors of terrorism in 1993 and imposed economic trade and financial sanctions in 1997, which were later supplemented by a United Nations arms embargo.
Last year Washington renewed its sanctions but said it would also seek engagement with Khartoum, earning criticism from activist groups who said the government was dragging its feet on implementing the 2005 peace deal with southern Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
That agreement ended a civil war that claimed two million lives.
The two sides are now struggling to work out basic agreements ahead of the January vote, which marks the culmination of the 2005 deal and which many analysts expect to result in southern secession.
But key issues including border demarcation and the crucial question of dividing oil profits remain to be solved, leading Obama to decide it was time to offer specific carrots and sticks to get the process on track.
"The President, and the Obama administration, has taken a really serious look at what we can do now ...and (if) there are any incentives that need to put in place, that we do it now," Gration said.
CARROTS AND STICKS
Gration said the new package made clear the benefits of a potential deal while also outlining possible consequences, including new sanctions, if the situation deteriorated or failed to make progress.
"What they have now is words on paper. What we want to do is to ensure that these things are implemented in a way that changes the environment," he said.
Analysts said the package gave Sudanese leaders a clear choice in the remaining months.
"I'm confident that the balance of pressures and incentives is in the right direction, and that is a significant departure from the past," said John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide group that has been critical of the Obama administration's Sudan policy.
Gration said the proposed deal could open up new economic and political opportunities for Sudan, which has long had strained ties with the West.
First, the United States will immediately begin granting licenses for items such as agricultural machinery to help Sudan's struggling food sector, relaxing limits in place for about a decade.
"This will communicate to the people of Sudan that we do care about them, in addition it will give confidence that we're serious about this package," he said.
Next, if there is a peaceful, credible referendum on Jan. 9 and both sides respect the results, the United States will take steps to allow additional trade and investment in Sudan in certain prescribed non-oil sectors, he said.
The United States would further agree to an exchange of ambassadors if both sides agreed on the key principles for co-existence after the referendum vote.
And finally if Sudan managed to fully implement the 2005 peace deal and resolved the conflict in Darfur, the U.S. government would work with Congress to lift economic sanctions, rescind the state sponsor of terrorism designation and support international assistance and relief of Sudan's $35 billion in external debt, Gration said.
Gration said he was encouraged by progress on borders but that there was tougher going on the question of sharing revenues from oil, which is produced mainly in the south but shipped out of the country through the north.
(Editing by Patricia Wilson and Paul Simao)
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