CAIRO Ñ Sudan's military appears ready to launch an offensive against rebels in the south which could involve their crossing the Uganda border.

Over the weekend, rebels were said to have launched a bloody attack on a Sudanese military base in the south. At least 22 soldiers were killed in an attack attributed to the Uganda-based Lord Army.

The attack was the third in a month and came days after Sudan and Uganda agreed to end support for insurgency groups, Middle East Newsline reported. The accord was meant to stop the Lord's Army from attacking Sudanese troops along the Ugandan border.

It was not clear whether the Sudanese People's Liberation Army would also be a target of the military offensive. The SPLA has pledged to attack foreign companies operating in the oil fields in southern Sudan despite a ceasefire accord with Khartoum.

"We have said we will continue to attack the oil installations," SPLA chief John Garang told the Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington on Monday. "We want clarifications on whether the agreement covers the oil installations."

Garang held talks in Congress and with the State Department over efforts to widen a ceasefire in the south. The State Department has formed a group of experts to study the issue of slavery in Sudan, a major complaint of the SPLA. Sudanese officials said the military is gearing for an offensive against strongholds of the Lord Army. They said the offensive could include the entry of Sudanese troops in Ugandan territory.

Sudanese officials said the offensive is meant to curb insurgency activity in the war-torn south, particularly near the border with Uganda. They said rebels have used Uganda to launch deadly attacks against Sudanese military positions.

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