CAIRO -- Sudan signed last month's peace protocol with the southern rebel movement to forestall the de facto secession of the war-torn south, Khartoum's information minister said in an interview published Friday.

"The Machakos agreement canceled anything existing on the ground that represents a form of separation," Mahdi Ibrahim told Egypt's official ****Al-Ahram**** newspaper in an apparent attempt to assuage Cairo's concerns over secession.

Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader "John Garang was carrying out activities to bring about separation on the ground in areas that he controls," Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim spoke of SPLA plans to institute a currency and Central Bank in these areas, as well as U.S.-funded programs to finance the development of southern civil society.

However, the SPLA has said plans for a currency were aimed to ease financial transactions in an area that lacks a banking system, and have nothing to do with separation. Ibrahim said the newly signed protocol gives the Sudanese government "six years to work (for) unity."

According to ****Al-Ahram****, the interview responded to "concerns in Egyptian political, intellectual and popular circles about some of the clauses" in the Machakos accord, signed by representatives of the SPLA and Khartoum on July 20 in Kenya.

The accord grants the mostly Christian and south a six-year period of administrative autonomy, after which it will decide in a referendum if it wishes to remain part of Sudan or secede, AFP reported.

Egypt fears the creation of a new state will increase competition for the waters of the Nile as well as make it easier for Islamists to dominate northern Sudan, diplomats and analysts here said.

Sudan has recently urged Arab states to support economic development in the south in order to persuade southerners to remain within the union.

Among the grievances of the SPLA is the lack of resources devoted to the south.

The movement has fought a succession of Khartoum-based governments since 1983, in a civil war that has left an estimated two million people dead and more than double that figure displaced, according to aid groups.