* Unity state expelled northern workers after clashes
* Unity oilfield produces 84,000 bpd
* Fresh fighting between rebel militia, S.Sudan army
(Adds oil ministry statement)
KHARTOUM, April 21 (Reuters) - South Sudan's government has decided to re-admit northern oil workers expelled from oil-producing Unity state after deadly clashes in the region, the Sudanese petroleum minister said.
Unity state kicked out north Sudanese working in its oilfields on Wednesday after accusing Khartoum of backing rebel militias fighting the south Sudan army. At least 31 people were killed in a clash between the two on Tuesday. [ID:nLDE73J233]
Output at the Unity oilfields, which produce 84,000 barrels per day, was disrupted by the expulsion because most of the 212 workers there were north Sudanese, Petroleum Minister Lual Deng, a southerner, told Reuters by phone.
The decision to expel the northern oil workers was outside the jurisdiction of the governor and was overturned by south Sudan's president, Deng said. But some of those expelled had returned to Khartoum, he said.
The workers will return to the oilfields within 24 hours, an oil ministry statement said on Thursday.
Mangar Amerdid, a spokesman for south Sudan President Salva Kiir, said Unity state's information minister had said the oil workers had been removed for their own safety, not as retaliation against the north.
Southern Sudan voted to separate from the north in a January referendum promised under a 2005 peace accord that ended decades of civil war in Africa's largest country. It formally secedes and becomes independent on July 9.
The underdeveloped region, the source of most of Sudan's 500,000 barrels per day of oil, has been troubled by tribal fights over cattle and other clashes that have killed hundreds since the referendum.
Analysts say South Sudan will have to maintain security to avoid becoming a failed state that destabilises the whole region.
Southern leaders have accused their former civil war foes in the north of arming the renegades to try to destabilise the region and keep control of its oil, charges Khartoum denies.
Fighting broke out on Thursday between rebel militia and the south Sudan army in the same county in Unity state where they fought on Tuesday, the southern army said.
Misseriya Arab nomads from the north claimed sole responsibility for Tuesday's attack. But the southern army (SPLA) has said the Misseriya fought alongside fighters loyal to Peter Gadet, a renegade former SPLA officer.
The latest fighting, in Mayom county, was also between the southern army and rebel SPLA soldiers who had banded with the Misseriya under Gadet, southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said.
"This is their second wave of attacks," Aguer said. He said there were no confirmed casualties yet.
Oil is the lifeblood of the northern and southern economies and the two have yet to work out how to share the revenue after separation. At present, revenue is spilt roughly 50-50 between south and north, and the south will still have to rely on pipelines in the north after July. (Reporting by Deepa Babington in Khartoum and Jeremy Clarke in Juba; editing by Tim Pearce)
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