By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA, March 29 (Reuters) - The United Nations and the African Union on Thursday urged the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to convene for talks as soon as possible after two days of clashes between the neighbours threatened a relapse into a full-scale war.
South Sudan pulled troops out of Sudan's oil-producing Heglig area on Wednesday after it accused Khartoum of bombing major oil fields and other areas on its side of the border.
Sudan denied the air raids but said South Sudanese troops started the fighting by attacking Heglig, one of the major oilfields left on the Sudanese side of the border.
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir suspended plans to visit South Sudan on April 3 due to the violence, the worst seen since South Sudan declared independence from Sudan in July last year, taking most of the known crude reserves with it.
"There is a general call and support for the summit to take place as soon as possible, if not as scheduled," said Ramtane Lamamra, the African Union's Commissioner for Peace and Security.
"Everybody acknowledged the decisive importance of the two leaders getting together under the current circumstances," he told journalists following a meeting attended by U.N. officials and the deputy foreign ministers of both countries.
This week's fighting was fuelled by a row over the shared border, the ownership of disputed territories, and how much the landlocked south should pay to transport its oil through Sudan.
Talks on security issues resumed in Addis Ababa on Wednesday and will be followed by negotiations on oil and other issues, members of an AU panel mediating the talks told Reuters.
Despite signing a non-aggression pact and other deals on citizenship and the demarcation of the border, there is little sign the two sides are willing to make concessions on oil.
South Sudan has shut down its production of 350,000 barrels per day to stop Sudan taking oil for what it calls unpaid fees. Much of the oil is exported to China.
(Editing by Duncan Miriri)
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