African leaders have brought together the presidents of feuding neighbors Sudan and South Sudan for face to face talks at a hotel in the Ethiopian capital.

Saturday's meeting, between President Omar al-Bashir and his South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir, was the two leaders' first close-up encounter since their countries came close to war in April and it raised hopes for a negotiated settlement of oil and border disputes before an August 2 UN Security Council deadline.

Their African peers had hailed their presence and pledges to pursue negotiations on ways to settle their disputes over border demarcation and sharing of oil revenues.

"Their statements persuaded us that there is good will," Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara, who chairs the AU Council, told reporters after the closed-door session.

Landlocked South Sudan shut down oil production in January over a dispute with Khartoum about revenue sharing and fees for a pipeline through Sudan - the South's only outlet for its oil exports. The two countries' armies clashed in April over the disputed border oil area of Heglig.

The meeting took place on the sideline of the African heads of state meeting at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital to discuss ways to resolve aftermaths of military coups this year in Mali and Guinea-Bissau.

Besides backing reconciliation between the Sudans, they also threw their weight behind regional efforts to end a military rebellion in east Democratic Republic of Congo that has strained ties between Kinshasa and its Great Lakes neighbor Rwanda.

PHOTO CAPTION

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (Center L) shakes hands with his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir (Center R) following a meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Al-Jazeera