Sudan and South Sudan reach the end of the negotiating round today as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected in Juba on Friday.

Today’s deadline was set by the UN Security Council in a resolution 2046 passed after the April oil war around Heglig urging the two sides to agree on outstanding disagreements over oil, arrears payments, and territorial disputes.

The imminence of the deadline has prompted a flurry of activity by UK and US diplomats who publically and privately pressured the two sides to reach an agreement. Sudan’s Foreign Ministry, for its part, yesterday reassured the Americans that it nominally consents to the ‘tripartite proposal’ on aid access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

US Ambassador Susan Rice yesterday issued a written statement that “it appears increasingly unlikely that a comprehensive agreement on outstanding issues will be reached” by the deadline. She threatened that the UN Security Council would impose sanctions on the Sudans if the two sides don’t comply with the Security Council Resolution.

Her counterpart at the State Department, Hillary Clinton, meanwhile phoned Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti yesterday. According to Sudanese state media, Karti discussed with Clinton the talks with both South Sudan and SPLM-N, telling her that his government has accepted the ‘tripartite proposal’ but expressed some observations regarding its implementation, stressing that the operation will be allowed once an agreement is reached.

Secretary Clinton will meet with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir “"to reaffirm US support and to encourage progress in negotiations with Sudan to reach agreement on issues related to security, oil and citizenship,” according to her spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

With the 2 August deadline looming, the British Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant yesterday underlined its significance even as his American counterpart acknowledged it was unlikely to be met: “If I may say a word about the 2nd of August deadline that the Council set in Resolution 2046 for results of the dialogue between Sudan and South Sudan. We had hoped that the two leaders (Omar Al Bashir and Salva Kiir) would be getting together early this week in order to try and resolve those outstanding differences. We understand that that meeting has not yet taken place.”

“But we urge both leaders to show the necessary statesmanship to make the necessary compromises so that agreement can be reached on these outstanding issues. The Security Council has set a deadline and expects results by that deadline. Thank you,” said Ambassador Grant, according to a record of his remarks published on British government websites.

Lead mediator Thabo Mbeki, the former South African president, will brief the council on the negotiations next week. If he reports that the two sides have made considerable progress then the UN Security Council may issue another resolution extending the deadline.