NAIROBI, Jan. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Thursday it expects to repatriate 70,000 Sudanese refugees in seven neighboring countries in the next 4-5 months.

    UNHCR Director of Sudanese Operations, Jean-Marie Fakhouri said the agency plans to bring refugees home to south Sudan from the Central African Republic, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by end of May when the dry season ends.

    He said the entire operation which will be done gradually to avoid returnees overwhelming the basic services on the ground will cost 63 million U.S. dollars.

    "Generally, we estimate to repatriate about 70,000 Sudanese refugees living in seven neighboring countries. This operation will require minimum funding requirement of 63 million until May-June this year," Fakhouri told a news conference in Nairobi.

    "We estimate that 10,000 refugees from the Kakuma camp in Kenyamay actually want to go home. We already have 2,000 who registered to return home up to September this year. They said they would like to go back," he told reporters after signing a tripartite refugee agreement in Nairobi.

    "This is the window of opportunity during which we will try to organize as many return movements for those refugees who want to go back. The returns are voluntary," he noted.

    The UNHCR Kenya Representative George Okoth-Obbo said about 8,000 Sudanese refugees from neighboring countries, among them 2,000 from Kenya have volunteered to go home, and the agency hopes the number to reduce by May next year.

    He said the UN refugee agency is conducting an information campaign among the remaining refugees to help them decide whether to return.

    "It is the situation on the ground which compared to other countries has very few services. It is clear that it will take long time for southern Sudan to have capability to actually provide the same level of services to its people than even those that are given at the refugee amps," Okoth-Obbo said.

    Sudan's most recent north-south civil war began in 1983, pitting rebels in the south against the northern government.

    More than two million people died and four million were displaced during nearly two decades of warfare.

    About 500,000 southern Sudanese fled to Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and four other countries in the region.

    A peace process between the rebels and the government, held in neighboring Kenya, concluded when the two sides signed a comprehensive peace agreement on January 9, 2005.

    But Fakhouri said all Sudanese refugees will eventually be urged to leave Kenya and other places, when the conditions are right.

    "If we are totally convinced that the reasons that made them leave their country and come and seek asylum here no longer exit, then we will definitely let them know that the time has come for them to go back," he said.

    He said some refugees have gone home especially from the DRC on their own without waiting for UNHCR assistance but many -- such as those in Kenya -- are taking a more cautious approach because of the lack of infrastructure and services in the south.

    He said the UNHCR approach, working with other agencies, has been to undertake projects that will help entire communities, without differentiating between residents who never left and those who are coming back.

    Despite the importance of the operation, which, if successful, would bring an end to one of the world's most deadly and enduring crises, in which 2 million people are estimated to have been killed, Fakhouri said its south Sudan operation remains seriously under-funded, with only 43 million U.S. dollars so far received out of the 76.3 million dollars budgeted for 2005.

    Apart form Kenya, the other countries hosting large numbers of refugees from South Sudan are Uganda with 204,400, Ethiopia with 90,500, the DRC with 69,400, and Central African Republic with 36,000 and Egypt with 30,324. Enditem