- CAIRO: Egypt is concerned by the prospect of violence and an influx of migrants after a secession referendum in neighboring Sudan and would not object if the vote were delayed, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.
The plebiscite, promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war, is scheduled to take place in January. Analysts say the oil-producing south is likely to vote for independence.
But preparations have fallen behind schedule and disputes over the timetable have raised fears of a return to war.
"It is not a problem if the referendum is delayed for several months," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Ahmed Aboul Gheit as saying at a session of Egypt's upper house of parliament on Wednesday.
"We fear that the split will be marked by violence and affect Sudan's relations with neighboring countries, and Egypt may be obliged by the circumstances to receive Sudanese," Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying.
He said Egypt had offered Sudan a "confederate" solution, but did not give details.
Egypt already has hundreds of thousands of Sudanese migrants living within its borders, activists say. In 2005, police killed more than two dozen Sudanese when they broke up a Cairo sit-in by asylum seekers demanding resettlement in the West.
An Egyptian military court on Thursday ruled to expel 55 Sudanese migrants that had entered Egypt illegally, court sources said. The migrants were arrested when they tried to slip from Egypt into Israel last month.
The North African country is also keenly watching the secession poll for any effect on a colonial-era treaty that gives it the lion's share of the River Nile's annual flow, and has moved to improve ties with the south ahead of the vote.
In July, Egypt said it would give south Sudan $300 million for water and electricity projects and that the state airline EgyptAir would fly twice a week to the southern capital Juba.
More than 2 million people died during the two-decade long war between Sudan's Islamic north and the south, where most are Christians or follow traditional religions.
Southern officials have accused Khartoum of arming militias to provoke conflict and demonstrate the south cannot govern itself ahead of the 2011 secession poll, scheduled for Jan. 9.