UNITED NATIONS, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the United Nations hopes to boost the number of peacekeepers in Sudan amid fears that Africa's largest country by area could be headed for a new civil war.
Voter registration began on Monday for a January 2011 referendum on whether oil-producing southern Sudan should secede from the north. [ID:nHEA524044]
The plebiscite is the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south conflict -- Africa's longest civil war that was fought over ethnicity, religion, ideology and oil and killed 2 million people. Analysts and diplomats expect the south to choose independence from Khartoum.
"We are working with both parties (north and south) on options for a possible augmentation of additional U.N. troops to increase referendum and post-referendum security," Ban told a special U.N. Security Council debate on Sudan chaired by British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Ban said the increase in the 10,000-strong force that monitors compliance with the 2005 peace deal would also be to increase its capacity to "verify and monitor possible ceasefire violations and to protect civilians."
It was not immediately clear how many troops the world body could muster ahead of the Jan. 9 referendum. But Ban made clear that no increase in U.N. troops could stop a new civil war in the event of renewed bloodshed on a massive scale.
"It will not be enough to prevent the return to war should widespread hostilities erupt," he said.
Preparations for the southern vote, as well as a separate plebiscite on whether the oil-rich Abyei region should remain under Khartoum or join the south, are behind schedule. Analysts say that a delay of the southern vote could lead to violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was due to address the council meeting on Sudan later on Tuesday. <For a factbox on the referendum, click on [ID:nLDE6AE0C2]> (Reporting Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Anthony Boadle)
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