Opposition negotiators come under fire as they boycott Day 2 of the slow-moving talks in Addis Ababa.
Warring sides again trade accusations over who started the latest fighting in Jonglei state, one of the hot-spots of the seven-month-old conflict.
Officials say 18 people were killed in Jonglei state and another 35 bodies were found in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, where rebels clashed with government troops early this week.
The adjournment will allow IGAD, the regional bloc mediating the talks, to hold consultations to try to get the negotiations back on track after the opposition boycotted the negotiations.
Opposition negotiators boycott the opening session of the latest round of talks, saying their request to IGAD that the talks should be more inclusive has fallen on deaf ears.
President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar agree to set up a transitional government within 60 days as regional bloc IGAD threatens punitive action if they don't hold up their end of the latest peace deal for South Sudan.
The opposition welcomes the defectors, saying their leaving the SPLM is a sign the government of President Salva Kiir is "crumbling from within."
The opposition says the government has brought in 100 delegates for the talks while its team is only 14-strong.
In a lengthy resignation letter, former Higher Education Minister Peter Adwok Nyaba accuses President Salva Kiir of "an inner tendency to dictatorship" and says he has turned the SPLM into an oppressive, totalitarian machine.
The two sides in the nearly six-month-old conflict blame each other for violating a ceasefire deal signed nearly a month ago.
A spokesman for the opposition says "it is not the business of UNMISS to protect oil installations."
The South Sudan opposition leader is due to brief Kenyan officials, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, on the status of the IGAD-mediated peace process.
The fighting comes days after international donors pledged $600 million to South Sudan, and warned that without an end to the violence, the funds would be of no use.
The two men are due to meet face-to-face on Friday for the first time since a political row between them turned violent and plunged South Sudan into months of bloodletting.
The suspension is the latest delay to the second round of talks and comes as the United Nations says one million people have been displaced by the ongoing, 100-day-old conflict.
The capital of the main oil-producing state in South Sudan has changed hands five times since fighting broke out in mid-December.
Team of three South Sudan officials handed out booklets in Nairobi called "The truth about the aborted coup of Dr. Riek Machar and his group."
Unexploded cluster munitions found on a road near Bor in Jonglei state are thought to have been air-dropped on the area since unrest erupted in South Sudan in mid-December.
Opposition negotiators lifted a threat to boycott the talks when IGAD mediators assured them that the seven former detainees would be allowed to attend.
Talks are set to resume in earnest Wednesday after the opposition withdraws a threat to boycott the negotiations.
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