A group of U.S. seed, chemical and equipment companies will invest at least $150 million over the next few years into African agricultural projects and products, the companies said on Friday. 

The investments pledged by DuPont, Monsanto, Cargill and others are part of an overall $3 billion effort by companies around the world announced by President Barack Obama.

Along with companies from India, Israel, Switzerland, Norway and the United Kingdom, and 20 companies from Africa, the corporations have committed some $3 billion for projects to help farmers in the developing world build local markets and improve productivity.

The United Nations has said that by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water. Absent these resources, it said, up to 3 billion people would probably be condemned into poverty.

Capitalizing on food demand in Africa also holds strong profit potential, corporate leaders said.

"It has been a bit chaotic. There are all sorts of issues around the countries in Africa. But the population, the economic growth, the quality of many of the soils is there," DuPont Executive Vice President Jim Borel told Reuters in an interview. "The need is there, the potential is there."

"We're convinced we can take the base we have now, and accelerate that progress," said Borel, who oversees DuPont's food and nutrition businesses. Among DuPont's units is its Pioneer Hi-Bred International seed company, which has operated in Africa for decades.

India and China are more stable and growing faster, but Africa is "not far behind," according to Borel.

The push by global corporations to spend more money and develop new markets across Africa comes as an expanding world population and growing demand for quality food threaten to exceed existing limits of agricultural production.

Investors have been buying up farmland in Africa, hoping to make it more productive using modern agricultural technologies. That, combined with the rising interest of international agricultural corporations, has brought criticism.

Advocates for African farmers fear they will lose control over their food supply and markets. They say African farmers are being displaced and unsustainable farm practices are being introduced.

"The problem is all this is based on large-scale commercial agriculture," said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, a policy think tank. "Who does it benefit? All of these things are supporting the formation of large-scale commercial agriculture, which will hurt small farmers. They could spend far less but focus on providing credit facilities, ensuring open markets and ensuring the rights of small holder farmers." 

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A Swedish safari boss, his British pilot and 13 of their staff have been accused of torturing and killing 18 people in the Central African Republic, according to reports.

However, Erik Mararv, of Central African Wildlife Adventures, and 24-year-old aviator David Simpson say they simply discovered the bodies and were arrested when they reported the gruesome find to the authorities, according to Britain's Channel 4 News. 

The people killed in the massacre were burned with hot water and then hacked to death with machetes.

Simpson said he spotted the bodies while flying over the southeast of the country, near Bakouma, and he believes they were killed by Joseph Kony’s infamous Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Simpson’s brother Paul told Channel 4 that he thought they were being blackmailed, while a member of Conciliation Resources, a charity that campaigns for peace and has worked on the Kony problem, suggested they were being “scapegoated” because of the inability of the authorities to tackle the LRA.

'I had nothing to do with it'
Despite being held in jail for more than six weeks, Simpson has access to a cellphone and a laptop computer, although communications are difficult.

“Now I have been forced to sign a piece of paper which states that I have been charged with murdering 13 people," he told the Daily Mail newspaper. "It is just ridiculous. Everyone knows I had nothing to do with it. They know it was Kony. 

“It’s all about money. They think because I am white, I must be wealthy," he added. "When they first arrested me, my bail was set at one million euros, which is just ludicrous. I do not know what is going to happen. It’s like a nightmare. I’m sleeping on the floor with no blankets or mattress. I just want this to be over."

'Big fish' nabbed: Troops capture senior Kony commander

Speaking from Gillamoor, England, David’s father Peter Simpson told Channel 4 that their situation was “about as stressful a thing as you could ever wish to happen to anybody.”

But he added that he was “positive he [David] will come back.”

NYT: In vast jungle, US troops aid hunt for Kony

Paul Simpson told Channel 4 that because it was "two white men who reported it, they held them and arrested them and blackmailed them."

'Face-saving exercise'
Caesar Poblicks, of Conciliation Resources, told the broadcaster that the authorities in Central African Republic were “kind of covering up” what really happened.

“It’s a face-saving exercise where he [Simpson] is actually scapegoated for lack of ability to actually apprehend those who have done this kind of activity,” he added.

Central African Wildlife Adventures describes itself as “the most exclusive safari company in Central Africa,” that offers safaris in “the heart of a wilderness within the heart of Africa.”

Sequel to 'Kony 2012' video released

“In the eastern Central African Republic lies a vast territory … totally free of any human encroachment,” its website says.

It says that none of the area where the company operates “has ever been hunted by white men before.”

“Most of it has never even been hunted by natives… It’s simply too far away. The area is very special in the way that we can combine savannah hunting with forest hunting … You may in the morning hunt the majestic Lord Derby Eland and in the evening track one of our forest trails for the elusive Bongo,” it added. “Or why not call for lion? We entirely hunt our lions either by tracking or by calling in early mornings or late afternoons. This is one of the most adrenaline rushing hunts one can ever experience.”

In 'Kony' town, video is hardly a sensation

The U.K. Foreign Office advises people not to travel to the southeastern part of the country, including Bakouma.

The State Department warns that “armed rebel groups, bandits, and poachers present real dangers, and the Central African government is unable to guarantee the safety of visitors in most parts of the country.”

“The continued presence of the Lord’s Resistance Army in eastern CAR poses a particular safety and security threat,” it adds in online information about the country.

It says U.S. citizens should not travel outside the capital Bangui unless it is essential.

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Ahead of this week's G8 summit at Camp David, Maryland, the musician and global poverty campaigner Bob Geldof has returned to Ethiopia to highlight the issue of famine and climate change – 28 years after his charity appeals first made world headlines.

The singer said G8 leaders have failed to adhere to aid targets set at the Gleneagles summit in 2005.

The G8 "is capable of contributing to end" poverty, he said.

He also acknowledged that people may have grown tired of his campaigning, but said even basic projects such as the irrigation ditch he was inspecting, saved lives. "I know people are like...'Oh, Geldof, give it a break' but the facts is these people [here] are not dead."

Geldof was one of the key figures behind the Band Aid fundraising music project, launched in 1984 after Ethiopia suffered a devastating famine.

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James Akena / Reuters

Caesar Achellam, center, is a close ally of rebel leader Joseph Kony and had masterminded the Lord's Resistance Army's relocation from northern Uganda, analysts say.

RIVER VOVODO, Central African Republic -- Uganda has captured one of the top five members of the Lord's Resistance Army, bringing it a step closer to catching Joseph Kony, the notorious rebel leader accused of war crimes, the military said on Sunday.

The Ugandan army said it caught Caesar Achellam, a major general in Kony's outfit of about 200 fighters, in an ambush along the banks of the River Mbou in Central African Republic (CAR) on Saturday.

Achellam was armed with just an AK-47 rifle and eight rounds of ammunition, a spokesman for the Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF), said. He was being held with his wife, a young daughter and a helper.

Ugandan army Lt. Col. Abdul Rugumayo told The Associated Press that Achellam was in a group of about 30 LRA rebels. The others escaped.

NYT: In vast jungle, US troops aid hunt for Kony

Although Achellam is not one of the LRA commanders indicted along with Kony in 2005 by the International Criminal Court, Ugandan officials say he was Kony's top military strategist.

The UPDF, which has a force hunting for Kony full-time in the jungles of CAR, backed by U.S. troops, said the capture of Achellam would encourage other fighters to abandon the LRA.

"The arrest of Major General Caesar Achellam is big progress because he is a big fish," said UPDF spokesman Felix Kulaigye. "His capture is definitely going to cause an opinion shift within the LRA."

In 'Kony' town, video is hardly a sensation

Achellam, who was paraded before media, walked with a limp, which he attributed to an old wound. He was returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo when he walked into the soldiers' ambush. UPDF said it had been on his trail for a month.

'Very troubling for Kony'
Analysts said Achellam was a close ally of Kony and had masterminded the group's relocation from northern Uganda.

"From whichever angle you look at it, the loss of Achellam should be very troubling for Kony and a big boost for his manhunt," said Angelo Izama, an analyst who has written extensively on the LRA.

Sequel to 'Kony 2012' video released

Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time wanted to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments, fled northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan, then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.

In December 2008, Uganda launched Operation Lightning Thunder against the LRA, dispersing the rebels and pushing them north into CAR.

Sex slaves
The rebels live in the jungles of CAR surviving on wild yams, stolen cattle and drinking from rivers.

Kony is accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves and is said to have a fondness for hacking off limbs.

A 30-minute YouTube video by California-based film-maker Jason Russell calling for the arrest of Kony swept across the Internet in March, attracting tens of millions of views, bringing the LRA's atrocities to the attention of many people previously unaware of the group's existence.

How the 'Kony 2012' video went viral

The Ugandan government, the African Union and the United States all stepped up their commitment to the hunt for Kony in the wake of the outrage caused by the video, "Kony 2012".

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A yacht and dozens of Rolex watches bought by Nigeria’s stock exchange for a total of more than $868,000 went missing during an outbreak of share-price fixing, fraudulent accounting and insider trading, according to a report obtained by Reuters.

The yacht, worth $235,000, was meant to be given as a gift during an award ceremony in 2008, but there are no records of anyone receiving it, according to Arunma Oteh, director general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission. The exchange also bought 165 Rolexes as prizes, but only 73 were actually presented.

"The outstanding 92 Rolex watches valued at 99.5 million naira (about $632,950) remain unaccounted for," Oteh said in a report that she presented to a Nigerian House of Representatives' committee that is investigating the scandal. The hearing took place Monday and Oteh’s report was obtained by Reuters Tuesday.

The abuses led to a financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 that saw shares lose 60 percent of their value in the year after the market peaked in March 2008.

"There were incidences of financial skimming, misappropriation, false accounting, misrepresentation, and questionable transactions," Oteh said in the report, according to Reuters.

She added that the market abuses were the “primary reasons for the continuation of the investor apathy that we see today."

The Nigerian Tribune newspaper reported Wednesday that Oteh had refused to appear at the hearing again on Tuesday and the chairman of the committee, Ibrahim Tukur El-Sudi, had threatened to arrest her.

Oteh wrote to the committee saying she was unable to attend the ongoing hearing Tuesday as she was going to a meeting about the national economy chaired by the country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, according the paper.

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Rodney Muhumuza / AP

For Ugandan soldiers tasked with catching Joseph Kony, the real threat is not the elusive Central Africa warlord and his brutal gang. Encounters between Ugandan troops and Lord's Resistance Army rebels are so rare that the Kony hunters worry about other things when they walk the jungle: Armed poachers, wild beasts and honey bees.

OBO, Central African Republic - In a bare concrete room in a far-flung corner of Central African Republic, U.S. special forces and Ugandan soldiers map out the hunt for one of Africa's most wanted rebel leaders hiding in an area the size of California.

The building belonged to the town of Obo's doctor until he was murdered last year by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) while transporting medicines by road. Now it serves as an operational center in one of America's latest military ventures in Africa.

The mission is clear.

"(The) focus is the removal of Joseph Kony and senior Lord's Resistance Army leadership from the battlefield," said Captain Ken Wright, a navy SEAL in command of the roughly 100-strong force which deployed in October.

Africa24 Media / Reuters

Lord Resistance Army's Major General Joseph Kony poses at peace negotiations between the LRA and Ugandan religious and cultural leaders in Ri-Kwangba, in southern Sudan, in November 2008.

Kony has evaded capture for nearly three decades, kidnapping tens of thousands of children to fill his militia's ranks and serve as sex slaves as he moves through the bush. Thousands more have died in the wake of his brutal army.

The deployment of elite American forces to help track Kony and his senior commanders in the dense equatorial jungle across a region that spans several countries has raised hopes the sadistic warlord's days are numbered.

The troops are armed but do not patrol the surrounding forests and are allowed to engage the LRA only in self-defense.

Instead, their focus is on improving intelligence on LRA positions gathered both electronically and from tips.

By meshing stories from hunters and nomadic cattle herders of encounters with the rebels together with sophisticated surveillance imagery, allied forces chart suspected rebel activity and coordinate the regional armies' pursuit of Kony.

"You look at patterns to see where LRA might be moving, historic areas where they might operate, so we can predict where they're going and try and head them off and most effectively use the forces on the ground," Captain Gregory, a 29-year-old Texan hidden behind sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat told Reuters.

For many of the U.S. troops who have recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the humid jungles of central Africa are unfamiliar territory.

Their deployment raised expectations locally that U.S. drones would be unearthing Kony. They are not, and this hostile environment is throwing up unforeseen challenges.

"Some of the gear we have here is affected by the vegetation ... and acts differently from in the desert. Vegetation absorbs signals and sounds," Gregory said.

International bad guy
Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time was bent on ruling Uganda by the Ten Commandments, fled his native northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan and then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.

In December 2008, after last-ditch peace talks failed, Ugandan paratroopers and fighter jets struck the LRA's Congo hideouts. Kony slipped through the net, raising suspicions he had been tipped off. He and many of his combatants moved north into the Central African Republic.

Kony was thrust back into the spotlight earlier this year when a video, "Kony 2012," highlighting the chilling mutilations, rapes and murders carried out by his spell-bound fighters went viral on the Internet.

Bruce Wharton, deputy assistant secretary in the Department of State's Africa bureau said the deployment of special forces was in part a response to legislation in 2010 calling on the Obama administration to do more to tackle Kony.

"I think Kony, for lack of an ideology, for lack of a political agenda, for lack of an intellectually identifiable cause, and for the brutality with which he operates, is at the top of the list of international bad guys," Wharton said.

Asked whether hunting Kony offered a convenient way of expanding the U.S. military footprint in Africa, Wharton told Reuters: "I absolutely think that as soon as this mission is accomplished the roughly 100 troops will go away."

Facing war crimes charges, Kony has transformed himself from a one-time altar boy to a master of jungle survival and evasion. His fighters have become increasingly savvy in concealing their movements, wading through crocodile-infested rivers and walking backwards and in loops to disguise their tracks.

The vicious and often drugged rebels first struck Obo in the early hours of March 6, 2009. They targeted the town's Catholic mission, abducting 76 people.

"We were told they were coming but we didn't believe they would attack the town," said Obo resident Ricardo Dimanche who runs a community radio project urging LRA fighters to give up their weapons.

"The next year they started attacking the small villages around us. Displaced people started flooding in," said Dimanche.

Underscoring the challenge facing the American and regional troops, the LRA launched almost as many attacks in the first three months of this year in CAR as in all of last year, according to U.N. data.

"Nobody has peace of mind now," said Dimanche.

U.S. military officials are reluctant to bet on if and when they might snare Kony.

"The global effort to try to find Osama bin Laden took 10 years with an extraordinary level of effort ... the highest priority for the international intelligence community, and it still took 10 years to find him," General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) told a media briefing in Germany ahead of the tightly controlled trip.

"So this is a tough mission."

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A car destroyed by the bomb sits outside the premises of ThisDay Newspapers bombed in Abuja on Thursday.

Suicide car bombers targeted the offices of Nigerian newspaper This Day in the capital Abuja and northern city of Kaduna on Thursday, killing at least four people in apparently coordinated strikes.

This Day is based in southern Nigeria and is broadly supportive of President Goodluck Jonathan's government - the main target for Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds of people this year in shootings and bombings.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

At around 11 a.m. one bomber drove a jeep into the daily's office in Abuja, killing himself and two others, witnesses and the state security service (SSS) said.

At the same time, 90 miles north in Kaduna, a car was stopped from getting into This Day's offices and one of the attackers jumped out.

Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP – Getty Images

A policeman stands in front of the premises of ThisDay newspapers bombed by suicide bombers early in Abuja on Thursday.

"He was immediately challenged by two gallant Nigerians, following which he threw the bomb at them and it detonated, killing them instantly," the SSS said in a statement.

It identified the bomber as Umaru Mustapha, from Maiduguri in Borno state, the home of Boko Haram in the remote northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

Thousands of Nigerians protest fuel prices, as government fears 'anarchy'

Later in the day, authorities reported another explosion in Kaduna. There were no further details.

Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means "Western education is sinful", has not previously targeted the press in its bombings. Last October, the sect killed a reporter for state-run television who it said was an informant.

Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP – Getty Images

Police officers scan debris of the engine of the Jeep used to bomb newspaper offices in Abuja, Thursday.

Boko Haram has been fighting a low level insurgency for more than two years and has become the main security menace in Africa's top oil producer. Most attacks have been in the largely Muslim north, well away from the southern oil fields.

This Day angered Muslims a decade ago when one of its columnists suggested the Prophet Mohammad might have wanted to marry a beauty queen. At least 100 people were killed in ensuing riots.

"Horrendous and wicked"
President Jonathan, in Ivory Coast for talks with other West African leaders on a crisis in Mali, said in a statement the attacks on This Day were "misguided, horrendous and wicked."

"The President urged media practitioners not to be dissuaded from carrying out their fearless campaign for peace, justice and equity, as democracy cannot flourish without press freedom," the statement from his media adviser said.

In August last year, Boko Haram carried out a suicide car bombing at the United Nations building in Abuja that killed 25 people and prompted a ramp-up in security measures.

At the scene of the Abuja blast on Thursday, sirens wailed as police and fire fighters rushed in. Smoke billowed from the building, whose windows were all smashed.

Soldiers and police cordoned off the area, while emergency workers evacuated wounded on stretchers to waiting ambulances.

"The suicide bomber came in a jeep and rammed a vehicle into the gate," said Olusegun Adeniyi, chairman of the This Day editorial board. "Two of our security men died, and obviously the suicide bomber died too."

This Day's publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, is a celebrity in Nigeria and puts on music, art and fashion events in cities in around the world.

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Updated at 8:01 a.m. ET: THE HAGUE -- In a historic ruling, a U.N.-backed court on Thursday convicted ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes during a conflict that left 50,000 dead.

Taylor, 64, was charged with murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, the court found him guilty of only some of the charges.

Taylor is the first head of state convicted by an international court since the post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.

The tribunal found Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting notoriously brutal rebels in return for "blood diamonds."

Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said the warlord-turned-president provided arms, ammunition, communications equipment and planning to rebels responsible for countless atrocities in the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone civil war. Lussick called the support "sustained and significant."

Echoes of a war: A journey around Sierra Leone

Taylor stood and showed no emotion as Lussick delivered the guilty verdicts at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

While judges convicted him of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebels, they cleared him of direct command responsibility, saying he had no direct control over the rebels he supported.

Lussick scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 16 and said sentence would be passed two weeks later.

The Associated Press reported that thousands celebrated in Sierra Leone after learning that Taylor had been convicted. Countless survivors of the civil war bear emotional and physical scars from the war. Rebels hacked off the limbs of many of their victims.

Human rights advocates say the case is a reminder that even the most powerful do not enjoy impunity.

Taylor, who was president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, was accused of backing and giving orders to Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in the 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.

'Murder and mayhem'
The prosecution alleged the RUF undermined a ceasefire agreement in 1999, prolonging the war for another three years, and that Taylor financed their war effort with the proceeds of "blood diamonds" mined illegally in Sierra Leone.

"The Taylor verdict is a watershed moment," Richard Dekker, head of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said before the tribunal announced its decision. "As president, Taylor is believed to have been responsible for so much murder and mayhem which unfolded in Sierra Leone. His was a shadow that loomed across the region, in the Ivory Coast, in Sierra Leone and Liberia."

Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images, file

A young Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighter poses near Freetown, Sierra Leone, on May 25, 1997.

Taylor denied all of the charges.

The crimes of the RUF were not in doubt. Courts have earlier convicted RUF fighters of crimes against humanity, including rape, torture and terrorism.

Civilians were mutilated during the conflict, their arms being cut off above the hand (known by fighters as "long sleeves") or above the elbow ("short sleeves").

Pregnant women shot
Trial witnesses described seeing children and pregnant women being shot, disemboweled or mutilated in a process aimed at creating terror in the civilian population.

But the challenge was to link Taylor to these crimes.

"The accused never set foot in Sierra Leone when these crimes were being committed. He never directly, physically committed these crimes," Brenda Hollis, the court's chief prosecutor, told Reuters before the verdict.

"In a domestic case, you have to prove there was a murder, we have the added level of proving linkage."

This was the reason the supermodel Naomi Campbell was summoned to give testimony to the court in 2010.

The prosecution alleged Taylor had sent uncut diamonds to her hotel room after a dinner given by former South African president Nelson Mandela, attended by both her and Taylor. She told the court she had no idea who had sent her the diamonds, which she called "dirty little pebbles."

Taylor is likely to appeal, meaning the trial could easily last for another six months.

Into the jungle on the hunt for Joseph Kony

Taylor is expected to serve time in a British maximum security prison. That will contrast sharply with the comparatively luxurious life Taylor enjoys in detention in The Hague. His case was moved there because of fears that his security could not be guaranteed in Sierra Leone.

In The Hague, Taylor has been free to mix with his fellow inmates and he has maintained "cordial" relations with his old enemy Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast leader who faces charges of crimes against humanity.

Taylor has also been known to cook and compare defense briefs with Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

As he awaited the verdict, he immersed himself in study of the Jewish faith, to which he converted before arriving in The Hague. He has regular visits from a rabbi and does not receive his lawyers on the Sabbath.

The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah / Reuters

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir waves to military soldiers on Monday.

South Sudan accused Sudan on Tuesday of mounting bombing raids on the newly independent country's oil-producing border region and President Salva Kiir said the latest hostilities amounted to a declaration of a war by his northern neighbor.

Weeks of cross-border fighting between the former civil war foes have threatened to escalate into a full blown conflict in a region that holds one of Africa's most significant oil reserves.

Although both Sudan, ruled by President Omar al-Bashir since 1989, and South Sudan, which became independent last July under a peace deal with Khartoum, can ill-afford a protracted war, both countries have fueled tensions with bellicose rhetoric.

The United States, China and Britain urged both sides to return to the negotiating table.

"We strongly condemn Sudan's military incursion into South Sudan. Sudan must immediately halt the aerial and artillery bombardment in South Sudan by the Sudan armed forces," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Sudan's foreign minister said he was ready to discuss security issues with the South.

Philip Aguer, spokesman for South Sudan's army, or the SPLA, said Sudanese Antonov aircraft had flown up to 40 km (25 miles) into South Sudan's territory to bomb the settlements of Teschween, Panakuach and Roliaq on Monday night. Taban Deng Gai, governor of Unity State where the raids occurred, said bombs had hit Lalop market and Panakuach.

The raids came after the SPLA said Sudan bombed a market early on Monday near the oil town of Bentiu, capital of Unity state, and killed two civilians, an attack they said amounted to a declaration of war. The United Nations condemned the attack.

The Sudanese army denied carrying out air strikes.

Speaking in China, which has significant oil and business interests in both African countries, Kiir said Sudan had declared on his country.

PhotoBlog: South Sudanese run for cover as Sudan bombs border area

"It (this visit) comes at a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbor in Khartoum has declared war on the Sudan," he told Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Hu called for restraint, urging the two neighbors to settle their disputes peacefully.

In addition to halting nearly all oil production, the recent fighting has displaced some 35,0000 people in areas around Heglig, Talodi and other parts of South Kordofan, the U.N. Refugee Agency said, citing its local partners.

"The urgent task is to actively cooperate with the mediation efforts of the international community and halt armed conflict in the border areas," China's state television paraphrased Hu as telling Kiir.

South Sudan said on Friday it would withdrew from the disputed Heglig oilfield it seized earlier this month, bowing to demands from the U.N. Security Council.

The SPLA's withdrawal from the oilfield, which used to produce about half of Sudan's total oil output, reduced the risk of an all-out war but Juba has accused Khartoum of daily air bombardments on its territories since then.

"We have not declared war but the SPLA is on maximum alert because if they attack they will not (catch) the SPLA off guard, Aguer told reporters in Juba.

"If they don't stop bombardment, if they don't stop the incursion into our territories, I assure you the SPLA is capable of retaking all of these areas that they are occupying by force," he said.

South Sudan became independent last year, breaking up what was Africa's largest country under a 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war.

But the two territories have yet to settle a long list of disputes including the position of their shared border, the ownership of critical territories and how much the landlocked South should pay in oil transit fees to Sudan.

The disputes have already halted nearly all oil production, choking the two countries' largely oil-dependent economies.

For China, the standoff shows how its economic expansion abroad has at times forced Beijing to deal with distant quarrels it would like to avoid.

A South Sudanese official, deputy chief of protocol Gum Bol Noah, said China had agreed to provide technical assistance on an alternative oil pipeline to Kenya, but would wait until the situation was calmer.

Juba has said it wants to build a pipeline within one year to end its dependency on Sudan's oil transit and export facilities, but experts say the project is not viable without significant new oil discoveries.

Bashir has ruled out a return to negotiations with Juba, saying the South's government only understands "the language of guns".

But Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti said Khartoum was ready to negotiate with the South on "security issues".

"I'm now ready to talk, but on the security issues," Karti told reporters in Addis Ababa after meeting officials from the African Union, who have urged both sides to return to talks.

South Sudan Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Kiir's visit to China was intended to improve relations that were strained after Juba expelled the head of a China-led oil consortium it accused of helping Sudan to "steal" southern oil.

"The relations we have been having with them (China), with Khartoum on the other side, have not been clear," he told reporters in Juba.

"There must be some sort of relationship where China can play a positive role, even in this war. You see it is like a case of a husband with two wives," he said referring to China's relationship with both Sudans. 

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