Sudan on Friday said it did not have any relations with the armed clashes in South Sudan, refuting claims by Juba that rebels backed by Khartoum were launching attacks on oil areas in the south, the official SUNA news agency reported.
"We have nothing to do with what is happening inside South Sudan. What is happening in Unity and Upper Nile States are internal southern Sudanese differences," Abdalla Masar, Sudan's Information Minister and government spokesman, was quoted as saying, Xinhua reported.
Masar refuted claims that Sudan attacked and bombarded South Sudanese areas, saying "if we want to do that, we would have destroyed their oil facilities which are close to us."
He noted that Sudan was aware that its difference was with the South Sudanese government and not the South Sudanese people, reiterating Sudan's keenness not to harm the citizens in the south.
South Sudan army spokesman Philip Aguer said earlier that the militias backed by Sudan's army had attacked an area near Malakal and that South Sudan's army then repulsed them.
Tensions have mounted between Sudan and South Sudan after the South Sudanese army entered the strategic area of Heglig which includes most of Sudan's oil fields.