The Sudanese parliament has voted to hold a referendum in southern Sudan on independence for the region.

The poll is scheduled to be held in January 2011. It has been agreed that people from the south born before 1956 who have moved to the north will be allowed to vote.

Holding a referendum was part of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the overwhelmingly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. The deal ended more than two decades of civil war in which an estimated two million people died.

Observers believe the overwhelming majority of the southern electorate will vote for independence.

On Wednesday, Sudan's parliament is voting on whether to hold another referendum for the Abeyei region which lies on the border between north and south. If this plebsicite goes ahead, it will decide whether the oil-rich region will join the north or the south.

photo: Khartoum ( Flickr / Mattnic )