* Reports of looting, house-to-house searches in Kadugli -UN
* Volatile border state seen as flashpoint ahead of split
GENEVA, June 10 (Reuters) - As many as 40,000 people may have fled fighting in Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s Southern Kordofan state, the United Nations said Friday, after nearly a week of clashes between northern forces and southern-aligned groups.
The clashes broke out in the volatile border state&${esc.hash}39;s capital of Kadugli after a police station was attacked on Saturday. Officials from the northern and southern ruling parties have traded blame for who started the fighting.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters in Geneva that armed checkpoints were set up on the main roads inside and around Kadugli and said it had received reports of "large-scale looting of property" continuing as of Thursday.
"Of the Kadugli population, estimated at 60,000, between 30,000 to 40,000 people are now believed to have fled the town," she said.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the organisation had received "extremely worrying reports of civilian casualties, mass displacement and deteriorating humanitarian conditions".
Human rights officers were in touch with doctors and a priest in the region who confirmed a number of civilians were killed or wounded in the fighting, and that house-to-house searches were being conducted in the west of Kadugli, he added.
South Sudan&${esc.hash}39;s army on Friday accused Khartoum of bombing a southern border village, and said southern forces were preparing to defend against any possible ground attack.
Southern Kordofan, which is in northern territory, has been seen as a potential flashpoint in the build-up to the south&${esc.hash}39;s scheduled secession in about a month because it is home to many fighters who fought against Khartoum during the last civil war.
Southern Sudan voted to secede in a January referendum, the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz in Khartoum)
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