(Corrects to referendums from election in first paragraph)
WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday his administration was using a range of diplomatic means to ensure peaceful voting in referendums in Sudan in January, which he called "a huge issue."
"This is one of our highest priorities," Obama said in a televised meeting with young American voters, who had indicated through computer messages that the situation in the war-torn African country was one of the issues about which they were most concerned.
Obama noted that 2 million people were killed last time there was a war between Sudan's north and south, and that millions more could die if the country erupted into violence in connection with the Jan. 9 referendum on whether southern Sudan will become independent from the north.
"This is a huge issue, something we're paying a lot of attention to," Obama said, urging his young audience to put pressure on members of Congress to pay attention to Sudan.
The 2005 peace agreement that ended decades of north-south civil war in Sudan called for a vote on southern independence and a separate vote on whether Abyei, a disputed oil-rich zone, should be part of the north or south.
The two referendums are scheduled for Jan. 9, but preparations are severely behind schedule. Sudan's predominantly Christian and animist southerners are widely expected to vote for secession. Khartoum, the capital of the largely Muslim north, wants to keep Africa's largest country united.
Obama said the stakes were high.
"It's important for us to prevent these wars, not only out of charitable reasons but also out of self-interest, because if war explodes there it could have a destabilizing effect that creates more space for terrorist activity that could eventually be directed at our homeland," he said. (Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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