Juba, South Sudan --
Antigovernment rebels in South Sudan took control of nearly all of a strategic city on Tuesday even as officials said representatives from the government and the rebels agreed to hold talks for the first time.
The announcement that talks would soon take place in neighboring Ethiopia was the first political breakthrough since ethnically based violence began coursing through South Sudan late on Dec. 15. The violence has killed more than 1,000 people - a number that is believed to be a low estimate - and has seen the country's two most powerful ethnic groups fight each other.
The United States envoy to the region, Donald Booth, met with President Salva Kiir on Tuesday - their fourth meeting in eight days - and spoke on the phone with the former vice president, Riek Machar, who is accused by the government of having tried to carry out a coup, a charge he denies.
Booth told reporters in Juba that the commitment to meet by the two sides was a "first step but very important step" toward achieving a cessation of hostilities and substantive talks to resolve the underlying political issues that could bring a halt to the violence.
Earlier in the day, heavy fighting erupted in Bor, the contested provincial capital of Jonglei state, which is a short drive from the capital, Juba. Government troops battled renegade forces loyal to Machar, said military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer.
The recapturing of Bor could give Machar an upper hand at the negotiating table. But international officials urged Machar not to move his troops past Bor toward the capital, said an international official who insisted on anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press.
On Monday, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned Machar to report to the negotiating table, or "we shall have to go for him, all of us."