KHARTOUM, Oct 9 (Reuters) - South Sudan independence supporters tussled with riot police and pro-unity campaigners in Khartoum on Saturday, in a rare public display of the growing divisions around a looming southern secession referendum.
A group of up to 40 southerners, waving banners and shouting slogans calling for independence, turned up at a 2,000-strong rally in support of Sudan's president, timed to coincide with the visit of U.N. Security Council envoys to the capital.
Riot police moved in after pro-unity supporters approached the southerners in downtown Khartoum and shouted at them to leave and pushed towards the group, said Reuters witnesses at the scene.
Security Council envoys, including Washington's U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, were scheduled to meet Sudan's foreign minister in a separate part of Khartoum's downtown at the same time as the protest.
People from Sudan's oil-producing south are three months away from a referendum on whether they should declare independence or stay united with the north, their foes in decades of civil war. (Writing by Andrew Heavens)
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