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The 2005 agreement signed by the Sudanese People's Liberation Army separatists in the south and the national government in the north ended a 20-year war.

Recent developments have allowed the two sides "to move beyond several major obstacles that had long impeded progress", U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in a release Friday.

These include legislation concerning next year's referendum on independence for southern Sudan and the registering of 16.5 million voters for national elections scheduled for this year, he said.

"Nevertheless, a return to conflict remains a very real possibility, with potentially catastrophic humanitarian, political, military and economic consequences throughout the region", Ban warned. "Preventing such an outcome will require all the support that the international and regional communities can offer."

The secretary-general singled out continued violence in southern Sudan and the slow pace of progress on border demarcation as potential problems.

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