UN chief worried about Sudan's Abyei

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says the military standoff in Sudan's fertile border region of Abyei is unacceptable and threatens peace

U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday that Ban is calling on both sides in the conflict _ the north's National Congress Party and the south's Sudan People's Liberation Movement _ to refrain from declaring ownership of the Abeyi area, which has been claimed by both sides.
Haq says the U.N. chief is concerned that new fighting could result in more loss of life and jeopardize the future relationship between north and south.
Southern Sudan is to secede later this year as part of a peace agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war with the north.