South Sudan on Friday accepted the deployment of a regional intervention force after escalating violence put a fragile peace deal in danger, the head of the East African bloc IGAD said.

"The government of South Sudan accepted," Mahboub Maalim said after a summit in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, adding that the specific scope and mandate of the force had yet to be decided.

But once an agreement on that had been reached, it would be submitted to the UN Security Council for a vote.

The force could be used to help implement an August 2015 peace deal, while protecting civilians and carrying out humanitarian duties, Maalim said.

Juba was rocked by several days of heavy fighting in early July between the government forces of President Salva Kiir and those loyal to ex-rebel chief Riek Machar, the latest upsurge in two-and-a-half years of war.

Fighting from August 8 to 11 left 300 people dead and forced more than 60,000 others to flee their homes.

Regional bloc IGAD had raised the possibility of deploying an "intervention brigade" with a more aggressive mandate within the UN mission currently present.

The 12,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, UNMISS, has faced criticism for failing to stem the latest bloodshed or fully protect civilians during the fighting.

The intervention force for South Sudan could be modelled on the Force Intervention Brigade of 3,000 troops deployed within the UN's mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which proved decisive in neutralising the M23 rebellion in 2013.

Former vice-president Machar has refused to come back to Juba until the deployment of a neutral force of African troops -- a plan approved by the the US and African Union but until now rejected by Kiir.

South Sudan army slams UN report alleging killings, rape
Nairobi (AFP) Aug 5, 2016 - South Sudan's army on Friday described a UN report alleging its troops carried out ethnically targeted killings and rapes as "baseless", saying not one victim had lodged a complaint.

The UN's top human rights official on Thursday blamed Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) troops loyal to President Salva Kiir for deadly attacks on the Nuer people during a bout of unrest in the capital in early July.

Kiir is from the Dinka ethnic group.

SPLA spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told AFP by phone that the UN's "baseless accusation" alleged attacks by men in uniform, who were not necessarily government soldiers.

He added that UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein had not come forward to request that the force carry out an investigation based on his claims of hundreds of rapes and killings.

Nearly 300 people have died in South Sudan's latest bout of violence, and 60,000 have fled the country, many to refugee camps in neighbouring Uganda.

Those who fled have provided journalists and humanitarian organisations testimony of government troops killing family members, raping women as they tried to escape and looting homes.

But the SPLA said the force had not received "any complaint from alleged victims regarding the above mentioned issue."

- 'Violations continue unabated' -

Of 217 cases of sexual violence in Juba recorded by the UN between July 8 and 25, "those most affected were displaced Nuer women and girls and those responsible seem to have been mostly SPLA," Zeid said.

Hussein also stated on Thursday that although the government has established a court martial aimed at trying SPLA soldiers who commit right abuses, "the violations continue unabated".

This was also untrue, the spokesman said, as 19 soldiers were currently on trial for crimes varying from looting to loitering to murder.

Ruai did not explain how those charges were brought if no victims had accused SPLA soldiers of these crimes.

Hussein presented his findings as the 13,500-strong UN peacekeeping force -- known as UNMISS -- faces criticism for failing to stem the latest bloodshed or fully protect civilians during the fighting.

East African leaders gathered in Ethiopia on Friday to discuss a regional intervention force to back up UN troops in South Sudan, an initiative vehemently opposed by Kiir.

More than 1.6 million people are displaced within the borders of the world's newest country as a result of one-off fighting since 2013.