* South Sudan likely to secede
* Needs common body to coordinate north-south issues
* Infra structure a priority for the south after referendum
By Jason Benham
JUBA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Sudan's north and south need a common authority to coordinate political and economic issues after a referendum on Jan. 9 which will likely see the south secede, Sudan's former vice president said on Thursday.
Such a body would be similar to the East African Community, a five-nation trade bloc, and would aim to resolve disputes and coordinate policies between the two states, Joseph Lagu told Reuters in an interview in the southern capital Juba.
"For me I have proposed a kind of common Sudanese authority to link the south and the north together," Lagu, a southerner and an adviser to South Sudan's President Silva Kiir, said.
"Presidents of south Sudan and north Sudan, their foreign ministers, their interior and defence ministers (should) hold periodical meetings ... to continue to iron out any minor problems and to emphasize on issues that are common to us so that our two countries can ...forge ahead."
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir visited Juba on Tuesday offering a hand of peace to southerners as he appeared to accept that Sudan would split into two after the referendum. His visit was seen as allaying fears that Khartoum would refuse to let go of the south, which has most of Sudan's oil output.
"President Bashir came here and he spoke well. If he continues to be like that we should reciprocate extending to him the hand of friendship and propose to him this idea of complementation."
Investors worry that the mechanics of north-south separation, the border, sharing oil resources and the waters of the Nile, and citizenship have still to be agreed, with secession likely to take effect on July 9.
Lagu said the new country should prioritise building its infrastructure and to consolidate its national unity.
South Sudan severely lacks basic infrastructure and has just 60 km (40 miles) of asphalt roads. Dirt roads criss cross the country but these quickly deteriorate in the rainy season.
"The priority for the government in the south is to build their infra structure, roads and other means of communication."
Lagu said that the lack of demobilisation of south Sudan's army was still a major problem.
"That has to be eventually accomplished ... they are not using their arms politically, our common enemy has been the north and the north has now withdrawn," he said.
Sudan's north-south civil war was fought over differences over ethnicity, oil, religion and ideology and claimed some 2 million lives. It ended with a peace deal in 2005.
Lagu was the first southerner to assume vice presidency after the signing of the Addis Ababa Peace Agreement in 1972, which ended the first civil war between north and south Sudan.
(Editing by Opheera McDoom)
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