CAIRO - Egypt and South Sudan on Sunday offered to mediate between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who began fighting in Khartoum and towns across the country on Saturday, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

In a phone call between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and South Sudan counterpart Salva Kiir on Sunday, the two most influential direct neighbors to Sudan called on both sides in the power struggle to "choose the voice of reason (and) peaceful dialgoue", the statement said.

(Reporting by Mohamed Waly; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir Editing by David Goodman)