Election officials confirmed on Monday that South Sudanese voted nearly unanimously for independence in January's referendum, news reports said.

The BBC reported that the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission announced in Khartoum that 98.83 percent of the voters had backed independence.

"There will be no changes to initial results. This is just [to] confirm the results released on 30th January which showed almost 99 percent of south Sudanese who voted at the referendum chose to secede from the north," the BBC quoted commision head Mohamed Ibrahim Khalil as saying.

Earlier, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir repeated that he would respect the outcome of the poll. The vote was part of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of fighting between Sudan's North and South. Tension still remains over some aspects of the accord, including the future of the oil-rich region of Abyei.

Following the announcement of the referendum results, the administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Helen Clark, congratulated the southern Sudanese people on the peaceful and transparent conduct of the referendum process.

She lauded the leading role of the referendum commission in Khartoum and its bureau in Juba, and expressed her gratitude to all international partners who had supported the process.

UNDP, through the UN Integrated Referendum and Electoral Division, provided assistance with the procurement of ballots and registration kits, voter registration campaigns, logistics, and technical support.

"The people of Southern Sudan will look to the future state to provide services such as security, health and education," said Helen Clark. "UNDP is standing by the people of Southern Sudan as they move forward into the next stage of building a strong, stable, and responsive state. UNDP is working with the Government of Southern Sudan to build up core government functions and efficient processes, particularly in the areas of rule of law, security, and public finance."