The European Union will deploy 16 members in Sudan next week to monitor voter registration for the January referendum on south Sudan independence.

The European delegation's office in Khartoum said on Thursday that it is the first time that the European Union will observe a voter registration process.

"The team of independent observers is deployed to assess the voter registration exercise scheduled in November-December for the referendum in Sudan," it said.

Registration will take place from November 15 to December 1, and the 16 experts will later brief the European Observation Mission (EOM) on their findings, the statement said.

The statement said that in mid-December an EU observation mission headed by MEP Veronique de Keyser will deploy ahead of the actual referendum.

EU observers monitored Sudanese parliamentary elections last April but did not arrive in time for voter registration.

The South will vote on January 9 in a referendum to determine whether South Sudan will be an independent state or remain with Sudan.

The referendum was part of a 2005 peace deal to end two decades of conflict between the north and oil-rich south in which some 1.5 million people died.