Khartoum: The UN said today it had airlifted more than 250 civilian staff from Sudan's flashpoint town of Abyei, where thousands of Sudanese are believed to have fled clashes in the contested oil region.

Fighting broke out in the town yesterday between the army and southern ex-rebels, who fought a 21-year civil war with Khartoum ended by a peace agreement in 2005,following an isolated incident north of Abyei.

The town is in the centre of a district on the border between north and south Sudan and its oil wealth is bitterly contested by the two sides.

Impasse over the area is one of the stumbling blocks delaying implementation of the peace deal and exacerbating tensions between north and south.

"We evacuated all our staff over the last 36 hours, that is around 259 people. This is all our civilian international staff and most of the national staff," UN spokesman Khaled Mansour told AFP in Khartoum.

The United Nations subsequently said it kept Sudanese and five international staff back in Abyei to perform critical duties.

"We still have around 400 people on the ground," said Mansour. The vast majority are UN peacekeepers, mainly Zambian soldiers.

The spokesman said shots were fired near the main UN camp, where about 25 civilians were admitted yesterday to shelter from the fighting.

Continued shooting today flouted UN calls on the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) to cease hostilities.

Source : PTI