(The following is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)

Washington — The United States is strongly committed to seeing the planned referendum on southern Sudanese self-determination take place on time and in a way that credibly reflects the will of the southern Sudanese, Vice President Biden told a delegation from south Sudan June 9, 2010.

Biden met with a delegation led by Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of Southern Sudan and first vice president of Sudan's Government of National Unity, in Nairobi before Biden left the Kenyan capital for South Africa.

According to a summary of the meeting released by the White House June 9, Biden recognized the "great strides" made in the South to establish state institutions and responsible governance since 2005, when its leaders signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with the Sudanese government. However, he urged that more be done to increase the "capacity, efficiency and transparency" of the state institutions regardless of the outcome of the referendum, which is scheduled for January 2011.

The CPA peace deal was signed to end Sudan's 22-year civil war between the largely Christian and animist South and the mainly Muslim North. The agreement includes autonomy for the South and a share in the country's oil revenues, as well as an agreement to hold the referendum, which offers the South and the oil-rich Abyei region a path to independence.

Vice President Biden underscored to Kiir "the need for southern leadership and international mobilization in ensuring that all necessary measures are in place for a peaceful outcome that is internationally recognized, and offered U.S. political, financial and technical support to that end," the White House statement said.

He also urged the southern Sudanese to immediately begin negotiations with the government in Khartoum on post-referendum arrangements such as border demarcation, revenue sharing and citizenship rights, "noting that there is insufficient time before the South's potential independence to wait" before tackling the issues.

Biden pledged the Obama administration's continued assistance in helping to professionalize the Sudan People's Liberation Army, recognizing "the serious threats to security faced by the South," the statement said.

While in Nairobi, Biden also discussed the situation in Somalia with United Nations Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah and a delegation that included the special representative of the chairperson of the African Union (AU), Boubacar Gaoussou Diarra, AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Force Commander Nathan Mugisha, and Ugandan Minister of Defense Crispus Kiyonga.

The White House said the vice president discussed further steps necessary to help the Somali people achieve stability, as well as the challenges facing AMISOM and the "urgent need for greater political inclusivity and stability in the Transitional Federal Government."

Biden commended AMISOM for its peacekeeping efforts in Somalia and discussed steps to bolster its capacity, the statement said.