KHARTOUM, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Sudan's armed forces said on Saturday they had seized an area held by rebels after a battle lasting two days in the border state of Blue Nile where fighting has been raging for five months.
Clashes spread to Blue Nile in September after violence broke out in June in the nearby oil-producing state of South Kordofan between the army and rebels from the SPLM-North, which wants to topple the Khartoum government.
Sudan wants to explore oil and gas in Blue Nile which is also rich in minerals such as chrome.
The fighting has forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to newly independent South Sudan bordering the two northern states, according to the United Nations.
Army spokesman Sawarmi Khalid Saad said the army had seized from rebels on Saturday the area of Magja, some 100 km (60 miles) south of Blue Nile's capital of Damazin.
"The armed forces liberated the area ... after two days of fighting with the SPLM during which the SPLM lost tens of fighters," he said.
SPLM-North spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi did not answer his cellphone when Reuters called seeking comment.
Magja lies between Damazin and the town of Kurmuk, a former rebel stronghold seized by the army in November.
Blue Nile and South Kordofan contain large groups who sided with the south in a decades-long civil war, and who say they continue to face persecution inside Sudan since South Sudan seceded in July.
The SPLM is now the ruling party in the independent south and denies supporting SPLM-North rebels across the border, as Khartoum alleges.
Events in South Kordofan and Blue Nile are difficult to verify because aid groups and foreign journalists are banned from areas where fighting takes place.
SPLM-North is one of a number of rebel movements in underdeveloped border areas who say they are fighting to overthrow Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and end what they see as the dominance of the Khartoum political elite.
Sudan and South Sudan, who still have to resolve a range of issues including the sharing of oil revenues, regularly trade accusations of supporting insurgencies on each other's territory. (Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams)
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