WASHINGTON Ñ Despite the apparent stalemate, Sudan has quietly improved its military position in the civil war.

U.S. officials said the regime in Khartoum has succeeded in lowering the cost of the 19-year-old civil war in the south. They said Khartoum has managed to continue oil development and reduce military involvement despite the absence of any dramatic victories over rebel forces.

The assessment comes as the Bush administration is negotiating with Khartoum over a roadmap to normalize relations. The United States is demanding that the Sudanese regime end bombing attacks on relief facilities in the south, which Khartoum says is used for shelter by the rebels.

The Sudanese military reported that its forces captured the leading SPLA base in the south. The base was said to have been used in attack on oil fields in the region. Officials said the military had also foiled an SPLA attempt to blow up Sudan's oil pipeline.

Randolph Martin, a senior director of Operations at the International Rescue Committee, has termed the conflict a "perfect war." Martin, who has travelled extensively throughout Sudan over the last 20 years, writes in the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, that the regime controls little in the south but has prevented an SPLA victory.

"Today the government controls only key garrison towns in the south," Martin wrote. "The rest of the region is ruled by the SPLM or one of the many other factions that have evolved over the years."

Martin said the construction of an oil pipeline has earned Sudan more than $1 million a day, "enough to pay for the military campaign and buy new friends abroad. From the north's perspective, therefore, the battle against the south has become self-sustaining, both politically and economically. It has become, in essence, a perfect war."

U.S. officials said the Khartoum regime has improved relations with Washington through its cooperation with the U.S.-led war against terrorism. They said the Sudanese regime has provided information on Al Qaida and its presence in Khartoum during the mid-1990s. A major obstacle, officials said, is Khartoum's human rights violations.

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