Preserving a fragile peace between Sudan and South Sudan, stepping up the hunt for Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and boosting African counter-terrorism efforts in Somalia will top U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's agenda in two days of talks.

After arriving in Uganda from Senegal on Thursday on the second stop of a seven-nation tour of Africa, Clinton will make a brief visit on Friday to Juba, capital of South Sudan, the world's newest country, to congratulate the nation on its first anniversary. She also will urge officials in South Sudan to resolve festering differences with Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Disputes over oil and territory threaten to crater a landmark 2005 peace deal that ended what was then Africa's longest-running civil war.

The two sides faced an Aug. 8 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council to reach agreement on issues left outstanding