By Skye Wheeler and Andrew Heavens

JUBA/KHARTOUM June 7 (Reuters) - Leaders of northern and southern Sudan have set out a "road map" to defuse conflict over oil-rich Abyei region and may turn to international arbitration for a final solution, southern officials said on Saturday.

Tens of thousands fled fighting between northern and southern troops in the remote central territory last month, raising fears that Africa's biggest country could be heading back into civil war.

But a committee of senior officials from both sides had now agreed on a "road map" to resolving the immediate crisis, said South Sudan's Minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Biong.

Abyei has been a main point of contention for Khartoum and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) since the former foes signed a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of civil war fought along ethnic, religious and ideological lines and complicated by oil.

The region, which has lucrative oil fields and a key oil pipeline, will choose to join the north or south in 2011, when the entire south will vote on secession.

Biong, a member of the eight-man committee, said the new road map, which still needs to be signed by Sudan's president and south Sudan's leader, included an interim administration for the region and the return of displaced people.

ARBITRATION

Beyond that, the agreement also set out a "mechanism" for ways for both sides to resolve their long-standing disagreements on the exact borders of the lucrative region, its local government and the sharing of oil revenues, said Biong.

"International arbitration would be the best option for all us us," he added, saying leaders still had to decide on exactly which body could handle the negotiations.

Northern and southern officials had also agreed on an "interim border" for the territory that would be respected until both sides could agree on a final demarcation, said Yasir Arman, the SPLM's deputy secretary general and another southern member of the committee.

Arman said the SPLM had decided to reach an agreement to allow the country to focus on a solution for the separate conflict in the western region of Darfur. "This will open up a window of hope," he said.

Southern officials said the road map could be signed on Sunday at a meeting between Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Salva Kiir who is both President of semi-autonomous south Sudan and First Vice President of Sudan as a whole.

South Sudan's Minister of Information Gabriel Changson Chang said there was still uncertainty over when the ceremony would take place.

"There is no definite date but the committee has completed its work. It could be signed at any time," he said.

Bashir said a deal to the Abyei crisis was close on Thursday. But, at the time, southern officials were cautious and told Reuters key issues still needed to be resolved. (Editing by Andrew Roche)

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