South Sudan's oil minister is accusing northern neighbor Sudan of stealing 120,000 barrels a day of the south's oil.

The accusation on Tuesday comes the same day the two sides are to begin another round of negotiations over their formally unified oil industry.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July to become the world's newest country, and took about three-fourths of what had been Sudan's oil with it. But the south's oil must run through Sudan's pipelines to get to port.

South Sudan's Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau told The Associated Press that Sudan is diverting about 120,000 barrels of oil pumped from the south daily.

Sudan has said it is taking the oil in lieu of transit fees Khartoum says that South Sudan is not paying.