Sudan recognises independent South Sudan-TV

KHARTOUM - Sudan officially recognised the independence of South Sudan on Friday, a government minister announced on state television.

"The Republic of Sudan declares that it recognises the state of South Sudan from July 9, said Khartoum's Minister for Presidential Affairs Bakri Hassan Saleh.

The south is scheduled to secede from after midnight tonight, a split agreed in the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north/south civil war.