Heavy fighting in Sudan’s Blue Nile state has killed 13 government soldiers and one rebel, the insurgents said yesterday but Khartoum’s military denied the death toll.

In a statement, rebels said their ambush and subsequent six-hour battle on Tuesday, 20 kilometres south of the state capital Damazin, also wounded 17 government troops and three insurgents from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N).

Access to the region is restricted and such figures cannot be verified.

The reported fighting came on the same day that Sudanese and South Sudanese forces resumed clashes along their border, bringing them closest to a return to outright war.

South Sudan separated last July in an overwhelming “yes” vote after decades of war.

The South denies Khartoum’s claim that it supports the SPLM-N, ethnic rebels who have been battling the government since last year in Blue Nile and South Korfodan states.

Sudan’s army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said rebel scout teams have clashed with government troops in Blue Nile but were defeated.

Khartoum has cited security concerns in placing tight restrictions on the operations of foreign relief agencies in both South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

The UN says the fighting has displaced or severely affected 350,000 people.

US officials have warned that about 250,000 people could soon go hungry in the region. Meanwhile the leaders of Sudan and South Sudan accused each other yesterday of wanting war, with each denying the other’s charge, as Sudanese war planes bombed a bridge in the South after days of fighting in a contested border region.

The fighting started on Tuesday, when Southern troops captured the strategic northern oil-producing district of Heglig, responsible for about half of the country’s crude output, triggering a halt to all production.