South Sudan says the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, has called for direct talks between Sudan and anti-Khartoum rebels.

South Sudan president Salva Kiir has held talks with the UN leader at an African development conference in Japan.

Sudan President Omar Al Bashir last week accused Juba of supporting the Northern rebels, a claim the South rejects.

South Sudan’s minister in the office of the President, Emmanuel LoWilla, says Ban Ki Moon has urged President Salva Kiir to do all he can to arrange talks next month in Addis Ababa between the rebels and the government of Sudan.

President Salva Kiir has argued the opponents of Khartoum have a reason and a cause, and he says those issues can only be addressed politically, not militarily.

The president has also thanked the Japanese government for sending peace keeping troops to South Sudan.

More than a dozen peacekeepers have died since Christmas, but the President says the government is doing all it can to provide better security.