UNITED NATIONS, Oct 25 (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers monitoring a fragile 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan could not stop new hostilities between the northern and southern armies, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on Monday.
Alain Le Roy, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, was discussing some of the possibilities for boosting security ahead of a planned referendum on southern independence early next year.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has said that there is a possibility of temporarily increasing the 10,000-strong blue-helmet force in Sudan, known as UNMIS, so it could better monitor hot spots on the north-south border.
Le Roy suggested that an increase would not help.
"An increase in the number of troops would not enable UNMIS to prevent, or even to contain, a clash between the two armies," Le Roy told the 15-nation Security Council.
"Our best available tool against a return to war remains our commitment in favor of a political agreement ... of the parties on the key pending issues," he said.
"It is all the more urgent that progress be achieved in the upcoming meetings in Addis Ababa," Le Roy added.
Preparations for the referendum on independence of the oil-producing south, and a separate plebiscite on whether the oil-rich central region of Abyei should join the south or remain with the north, are severely behind schedule.
U.S.-supervised talks in Addis Ababa to work out disagreements on talks that would enable the Abyei referendum to go ahead broke off in deadlock earlier this month. New talks are slated to begin later this week in the Ethiopian capital.
The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended more than two decades of civil war between the north and south. Some 2 million people died in that war, which was fueled by religion, ethnicity, ideology and resources, including oil. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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