South Sudan's civil war entered its ninth month Friday with rebels and government troops engaged in heavy battles, both sides said, days after U.N. warnings of sanctions over the conflict.

Fighting was reported around the town of Bentiu, capital of the northern oil state of Unity, as well as in the Ayod region of Jonglei state, with each two side accusing the other of launching attacks.

U.N. Security Council envoys said Wednesday they had little hope of a swift end to South Sudan's eight-month long conflict, despite threatening sanctions during meetings with the warring leaders.

"We did not hear much from them that gave us hope that there will be rapid agreement," in peace talks, British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told reporters, describing discussions with leaders as "disappointing."

Sudanese security agents on Tuesday arrested a senior member of the opposition Umma Party after it reached a deal in Paris to cooperate with rebels, an Umma official said.

The U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur head insisted Monday that UNAMID has nothing to hide, ahead of a U.N. probe into allegations it covered up crimes in the Sudanese region.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas said a committee from U.N. headquarters in New York is due in Sudan as early as next week to examine the allegations raised by Aicha Elbasri, who resigned last year as spokeswoman for UNAMID, one of the world's largest peacekeeping operations.

Warring rivals in South Sudan missed a 60-day deadline Sunday to forge a unity government, despite warnings of famine and the threat of sanctions if fighting continues.

Two Sudanese men have died after being detained and flogged 40 times each, a rights group said on Friday.

The cases are the latest to highlight the country's laws governing morality that took effect after the 1989 Islamist-backed coup by President Omar al-Bashir.

Sudan is to go ahead with general elections in April, the agency in charge of the ballot confirmed Wednesday, despite opposition concerns that the vote is being imposed.

It is still unclear whether President Omar al-Bashir will stand for re-election, 25 years after he seized power in an Islamist-backed coup.

Eighteen Sudanese have been killed by a rocket strike in the Libyan capital, but Khartoum says the situation does not yet warrant an evacuation of its nationals, official media reported.

At least five South Sudanese aid workers were killed on Tuesday by the same militia blamed for the murder of an aid worker in the same area the day before, the United Nations said.

Sudan's cabinet met in emergency session Tuesday after flooding killed 23 people, destroyed thousands of homes and sparked complaints of government negligence.

Khartoum state Governor Abdel Rahman al-Khidir announced "the death of 17 persons and collapse of 3,077 houses," the official SUNA news agency said.