Talks on Sudan dragged on into a third day as northern and southern delegations thrashed out sticking points after a reported deal on the disputed Abyei district.
Officials said Sudan President Omar al-Bashir left Addis Ababa Monday night but that members of his delegation had stayed behind to iron out remaining points of contention.
It was not clear if south Sudan leader Salva kiir, who met briefly Monday with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before she made a hasty departure due to Eritrean volcano ash, was still in town.
The closed-door talks, described late Monday as tense, switched to the Sheraton hotel Tuesday morning but no reason was given for the change of venue.
On Monday a southern minister said Khartoum was ready to pull its troops out of Abyei, as Clinton urged both sides to accept Ethiopian peacekeepers.
A new report from a Sudanese rights groups however accused the north of pursuing a genocidal campaign in the nearby region of South Kordofan.
"We have information that they have accepted to withdraw from Abyei as long as they agree on the specific arrangement with regards to the Abyei administration," south Sudan's Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told the independent Sudan Radio Service.
They were willing to discuss what forces would replace the north's Sudanese Armed forces (SAF), Benjamin said, adding: "I think they have accepted the principle that they have to withdraw."
Northern troops overran the flashpoint border district on May 21, in response to an attack on a convoy of SAF troops and UN peacekeepers, prompting more than 100,000 people to flee, according to UN estimates.
Clinton on Monday endorsed the idea of a peacekeeping force in Abyei and encouraged both sides to take up an Ethiopian offer of troops.
But she had not in any case planned to meet Bashir, wanted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Although Bashir refuses to recognise the court's authority, his travels have nevertheless been severely restricted.
Bashir and Kiir started meeting Sunday in a bid to resolve the crises in Abyei and another border region, South Kordofan, the north's only oil-producing state, one month ahead of the south's independence.
The talks came as the United Nations confirmed that the fighting of the past few days in South Kordofan had spilled into the south.
UNICEF Sudan Representative Nils Kastberg said all sides in the various conflicts in Sudan had shown a "total lack of respect for international humanitarian principles".
A six-page report released Monday by the Sudan Democracy First Group (SDGP) accused the northern Sudanese army of pursuing genocidal campaign in South Kordofan, targeting the indigenous Nuba peoples, helped by militia forces.
Southern Sudan is to proclaim full independence on July 9, under a peace deal after decades of conflict with the north, and the fighting threatens to overshadow the historic event, particularly if the southern army is drawn in.
The future status of Abyei remains the most sensitive issue dividing the two sides.
