South Sudan, the world's newest country, will launch its currency next week, officials say.

官员称，南苏丹——世界上最新建立的国家——下周将发行自己的货币。

Southerners fought a long war for independence
The South Sudan pound will feature the image of the late John Garang, the south's most revered¹ leader, the AP news agency reports.

A 2005 peace deal that Mr Garang signed with Khartoum paved the way for the south's independence on 9 July.

Analysts² say the launch of a currency is one of many challenges facing the new East African state.

Finance Minister David Deng Athorbei said plane-loads of the South Sudan pound would arrive in the capital, Juba, on Wednesday and it would be in circulation by Monday, the AFP news agency reports.

Its exchange rate would be fixed³ one-to-one with the former currency, the Sudanese pound, Mr Athorbei is quoted by AFP as saying.

'First football match'

He said the South Sudan government had battled to pay salaries for June and July.

"This difficulty is related to the fact that the Khartoum government did not deliver us the physical cash," Mr Athorbei said.

The south's independence follows decades of conflict with the north in which some 1.5 million people died.

Saturday's independence ceremony was held at the mausoleum（陵墓） of Mr Garang, who died just months after signing the peace deal with Khartoum.

On Sunday evening, South Sudan played its first football match, in the capital, Juba.

However, the new national team lost 3-1 to Kenyan club side Tusker FC after taking a 1-0 lead.

South Sudan has not yet been accepted as a member of the world football body Fifa and so the match was not officially recorded.

South Sudan is rich in oil, but is one of the least developed countries in the world, where one in seven children dies before the age of five.

Correspondents say keeping both the north and the south stable will be a challenge.

Fears of a new war resurfaced（浮上水面） after recent fighting in the border areas of Abyei and South Kordofan, where some 170,000 people have been forced from their homes.

Separate deals - and the withdrawal⁴ of rival forces from the border - have calmed tensions.

But the two sides must still decide on issues such as drawing up the new border and how to divide Sudan's debts and oil wealth.

Citizenship⁵ is also a key sticking point. A new law passed by the National Assembly in Khartoum has withdrawn⁶ Sudanese citizenship from all southerners.