Beijing wants a "credible" referendum on south Sudan's independence, and for a political solution to the Darfur conflict, Chinese envoy Liu Guijin said on Sunday.

China "hopes that the referendum on the self-determination of southern Sudan will be transparent and credible, which is in the interests of Sudan and serves the stability of the region," Liu told reporters in Khartoum.

"China wishes to cooperate with the north and south," the special envoy to Darfur said after talks with Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Luka Biong Deng.

The Chinese envoy stressed Beijing was in favour of the unity of Africa's largest country.

Southerners are to vote in a January 2011 referendum that could lead to the independence of South Sudan, which has vast and largely untapped natural resources, including oil.

The referendum is a central plank of a 2005 peace agreement that ended more than two decades of war between Sudan's north and south.

China, the top destination for Sudanese oil exports, is a strategic ally of President Omar al-Beshir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for Darfur war crimes.

"The only way to solve the Darfur problem is a political process," Liu said after meeting with Ghazi Salaheddin, Beshir's adviser on the Darfur issue.

On Monday, the Chinese envoy is due to visit El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, for a high-level meeting with Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov, European officials and United Nations and African Union mediator Djibril Bassole.

US envoy Scott Gration will not be present at the meeting in El-Fasher, but the United States will still be represented, according to diplomatic sources.

(AFP)