Thabo Mbeki, former South African president, who chaired the meeting with leaders of the Southern Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Sudanese government, on Monday announced that the two parties signed an agreement on Abyei.

Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman speaks at a Security Council meeting on issues of Sudan at the UN headquarters in New York, the United States, June 20, 2011. Thabo Mbeki, former South African president, who chaired a meeting with leaders of the Southern Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Sudanese government, on Monday announced that the two parties signed an agreement on Abyei. [Shen Hong/Xinhua]

"The SPLM and the Sudanese government have signed an agreement on Abyei," Mbeki told journalists at Sheraton International Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"It provides for the demilitarization of Abyei so that the Sudanese armed forces would withdraw and for the deployment of Ethiopian forces," he added.

He said the northern Sudanese military, the south's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and Ethiopian officials would now meet to settle on a mandate for Ethiopian peacekeeping forces that will be deployed in the region.

Mbeki said the peacekeepers would go to Abyei as soon as they are authorized by the United Nations and would replace all military forces in the area.

A police service would be established for the region, with the size and composition determined by a joint committee co-chaired by northern and southern officials, Mbeki added.