Southern Sudan troops die in attack

April 21, 2011, last updated at 00: 28 GMT at least 20 armed South Sudanese soldiers were killed in a clash with the rebels.

A spokesman for the Sudanese army in the South, the SPLA, said that the soldiers were killed when rebels attacked a village in the State of the unit.

The oil-producing State is in the North of the region, which will become an independent country in July after a recent referendum.

There were a number of recent attacks in the region.

In the South, the leaders have accused the Government in Khartoum of arming the rebels in an attempt to destabilize their region - something Khartoum denies.

South Sudan voted to separate from the North in a referendum promised under a 2005 peace agreement which ended decades of civil war.

The underdeveloped region is the source of most of the 500,000 barrels a day of oil Sudan.