Sudanese forces have bombed the southern rebel-held town of Kapoeta, according to a Roman Catholic Bishop.

Bishop Paride Taban told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that nine people had been killed and 14 others seriously wounded.

Everyone is just weeping and they don't know what to do

Bishop Paride Taban

He warned that some of the injured would die unless they were airlifted out of the town, as medical supplies have run out.

This is the second bombing in two weeks and comes as the government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels begin peace talks in neighbouring Kenya.

The SPLA is fighting for autonomy for the Christian and animist southern Sudan from the Muslim and Arab-dominated north.

'Everyone weeping'

Bishop Taban said that as he was arriving in Kapoeta, he heard an Antonov plane flying overhead and took cover.

"Immediately the plane arrived over the town and released four bombs," he said.

"Everyone is just weeping and they don't know what to do".

A week ago, the SPLA said that four people were killed when the town of Malual-Kan was bombed by government forces.

The SPLA captured Kapoeta from government forces last month.

The peace talks are being held after pressure from the United States to end the fighting.

But correspondents say that little has been achieved so far and continued war seems more likely than peace.

Despite a ceasefire in the central Nuba mountains signed by the government and rebels in January, fighting has continued in other parts of the country in the 19-year-old conflict.

Last week, an influential think-tank, the International Crisis Group, said that the Sudanese government was buying MiG fighters with its new oil wealth, in order to gain a military advantage over the SPLA.