JUBA, Sudan, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Northern Sudanese soldiers have begun moving out of south Sudan's oil producing areas and will have completed their withdrawal by the new Jan. 9 deadline, a southern army official said on Monday.

"There is gradual movement. On the 9th there will be no SAF (Sudan Armed Forces) forces in Unity State, in the oilfields, or in Upper Nile State. They are now moving," said Major General Biar Ajang of the former rebel southern Sudan People's Liberation Army.

Northern forces were originally supposed to leave the region by July 9 and hand control of its oilfields to joint patrols under a north-south peace deal that ended more than 20 years of war in 2005 and devolved power to the south.

Their continuing presence triggered an October walkout by former southern rebels holding ministerial posts in Sudan's coalition government. The two sides then set a new Dec. 31 deadline for the troop withdrawal that was also missed.

Ajang said representatives of the north-south Joint Defence Board had presented the new withdrawal plan early on Monday to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al Bashir and Vice President Salva Kiir, who is also the south's president.

Southern army officials found barracks that had housed SAF troops in oil-rich northern Upper Nile State empty on Monday morning, a Joint Defence Board member said.

Southern officials said northern soldiers, mostly in the south's two oil-rich states, had remained in place so that Khartoum could retain control of Sudan's vital 500,000 barrel per day oil production.

Ajang said that on Jan. 9 -- also the third anniversary of the north-south peace deal -- the SAF would officially hand over Unity State to special units of southern and northern soldiers that are to patrol the oilfields under the peace deal.

Southern officials earlier put the number of northern troops in Unity as high as 15,000. Kiir had put the number of northern troops still in the south late last year at 17,000 but northern officials said there remained only 3,600.

Remnants of southern forces in two transitional states above the north-south border, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, have also moved south, except 120 soldiers guarding tanks in Blue Nile, Ajang said.

"This is in the knowledge of SAF. They know they cannot be left alone," said Ajang, who added that the tanks needed maintenance. "(The rest) have moved already, redeployed south."

The north-south war, which was separate from the continuing conflict in Darfur, killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million from their homes. (Writing by Skye Wheeler, editing by Andrew Heavens and Tim Pearce)

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