* South Sudan less than three weeks from independence
* Ethiopian peacekeepers mandate to be discussed -Mbeki
(Adds details on Abyei administration, U.N. reaction)
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, June 20 (Reuters) - North and south Sudan have signed a deal to pull their troops out of the disputed Abyei region and bring in Ethiopian peacekeeping forces, former South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday.
South Sudan is due to break away as an independent country in less than three weeks and the question of who should control Abyei's fertile, oil-producing land has been one of the most contentious unresolved issues ahead of the split.
Khartoum seized Abyei's main town on May 21, causing tens of thousands of people to flee, triggering an international outcry and raising fears the two sides could return to open conflict.
Representatives of the south's dominant party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), and the Sudanese government had been meeting for more than a week in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa to try to reach an agreement over the region.
"The SPLM and the Sudanese government have signed an agreement on Abyei," Mbeki, who has been mediating between the two sides, told reporters.
"It provides for the demilitarisation of Abyei so that the Sudanese armed forces would withdraw and for the deployment of Ethiopian forces."
U.S. envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice on Monday called for a swift implementation of the agreement and the immediate deployment of Ethiopian troops. [ID:nN1E75J0YH]
In remarks to the U.N. Security Council, Rice said the United States would draft a U.N. resolution to authorise the Ethiopians' deployment.
Senior southern official Deng Alor said the deal on Abyei would help build confidence as the two sides worked on other unresolved issues such as how to share oil revenues, demarcate their common border and divide up the national debt.
Southerners voted overwhelmingly to secede from the north in a January referendum that was the culmination of a 2005 peace deal ending decades of north/south civil war.
About 2 million people died in that conflict, fought over religion, ideology, ethnicity and oil.
The northern army has also been fighting southern-aligned troops in the north-run border state of Southern Kordofan for over two weeks, creating further tensions ahead of the split.
JOINT COMMITTEE
Mbeki said the agreement would reconstitute Abyei's joint north-south administration, which was shut down by Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir after the northern troops moved in.
A five-member joint committee would also be established to oversee security and administration, he said.
The northern Sudanese military, the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Ethiopian officials would meet to settle on a mandate for the Ethiopian troops, who will deploy as soon as they are authorised by the United Nations, Mbeki added.
A police service would be established for the region, with the size and composition determined by a joint committee co-chaired by northern and southern officials, Mbeki added.
Abyei is used all year round by the south-linked Ngok Dinka people and for part of the year by northern Arab Misseriya nomads.
The region also contains one significant oilfield, Defra, part of a block run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium led by China's CNPC.
A separate referendum on whether Abyei should join the north or the south had been scheduled for January, but did not happen after the sides failed to agree who should be allowed to vote. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Writing by Alex Dziadosz in Khartoum; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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