ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his Southern counterpart Salva Kiir met late Sunday for the start of face-to-face talks hoped to strike a deal on long-running disputes, an AFP reporter said.

The former civil war foes, whose troops fought earlier this year in bloody clashes sparked by a raft of issues left unresolved when the South gained independence, were seen entering a meeting room at the talks in the Ethiopian capital.