Sudan's president on Monday said he accepted a southern vote for independence in a referendum that is set to create Africa's newest state and open up a fresh period of uncertainty in the increasingly volatile region.   

Final results from the plebiscite are due later on Monday but preliminary figures show 98.83 percent of voters from Sudan's oil-producing south chose to secede from the north. Sudan is now expected to split in two on July 9.   

"Today we received these results and we accept and welcome these results because they represent the will of the southern people," Bashir said in an address on state TV.

Bashir also issued a decree formally accepting the result. "We announce our respect and acceptance of the choice of the people of the south and of the result of the referendum," Minister of Presidential Affairs Bakri Hassan Saleh said on state television, reading the text of a presidential decree.

The referendum is the climax of a 2005 north-south peace deal that set out to end Africa's longest civil war, reunite the divided country and instil democracy in a land that straddles the continent's Arab-sub Saharan divide.

Bashir's comments allayed fears that the split could reignite conflict over the control of the south's oil reserves.   

Both sides did avoid major outbreaks of violence over the past five years. But they failed to overcome decades of deep mutual distrust to persuade southerners to embrace unity.   

Hundreds of people started gathering in the blistering heat of the southern capital Juba on Monday to celebrate the official results.   

"Today I don't fear war anymore, it is the past ... Our leaders have made friends with the north, but for me, I can never forgive them for what I have seen. I don't hate them now, but I never want to see them again," said Riak Maker, 29, as men drummed and women ululated around him.

Many southerners see the vote as a chance to end to years of northern repression, which they say stretches back through almost 50 years of civil wars to 19th century raids by slave traders.   

Bashir, who campaigned for unity, has surprised many commentators with a series of conciliatory remarks about the south in recent weeks.   

Washington has signalled it is ready to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after a successful referendum, and help in easing crippling trade sanctions.   

The West's hands may be tied by the continuing global uproar over Sudan's separate Darfur conflict. Bashir is still living under the threat of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court over charges he orchestrated genocide in Darfur.   

Deep uncertainties remain over the economic and political stability of both territories over the next five months of intense negotiations over how to share their oil revenues and other unresolved issues.

Landlocked south Sudan is almost entirely dependent on oil revenues and has struggled to find other sources of income to support its economy, weighed down by the huge costs of its army and civil service wage bills. - Reuters