Horn foes 'ready' for truce

Fighting continued as officials talked peace

Eritrea and Ethiopia have said they are ready to accept ceasefire proposals aimed at ending their two-year border war.

The Organisation of African Unity, which is brokering indirect peace talks between the two Horn of Africa neighbours, said it expected them to sign a formal agreement within a week.

The Eritreans approved the OAU deal on Friday, and Ethiopian delegates to the talks in Algiers have now said that they accept it "in principle" - but need more time to consult the government in Addis Ababa before giving a final decision.

Despite the apparent progress, Ethiopia launched a fresh military offensive all along its frontline with Eritrea on Saturday, saying it had been forced to go on the attack because of provocations by the Eritrean army.

Fierce fighting erupted near the western Eritrean towns of Guluj and Tesseney.

And according to the Eritrean Government, there were also clashes on the central front near the town of Senafe, and around the Red Sea port of Assab in the east.

The fighting now appears to have subsided. Ethiopia says the western front is relatively calm, and Eritrea says there is only sporadic shelling near Assab.

We gave the two parties a one week deadline to attend a ceremony to sign the cessation of hostilities in Algiers

OAU mediator Ahmed Ouyahia

Ethiopia claims to have captured hundreds of Eritrean troops in Guluj, but Eritrea said battle lines in the area remain unchanged.

It said its forces had beaten back the Ethiopian offensives on the Senafe and Assab fronts.

It was also quick to dismiss Ethiopia's request for more time, saying its failure to immediately accept the new plan "amounted to a rejection of the proposal".

It said that Ethiopia had given its response on the ground.

Deadline

The conflict, which broke out in May 1998, was reignited last month by a huge offensive which saw Ethiopia's army recapture all contested territory along the border and then march deep into Eritrea.

Eritrean troops only recently recaptured Tesseney

The OAU plan is reported to call for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops to their pre-war positions and an international peacekeeping force along the disputed border.

"We gave the two parties a one week deadline to attend a ceremony to sign the cessation of hostilities in Algiers," said OAU talks mediator Ahmed Ouyahia.

"We also set a date to receive the official Ethiopian response within the next few days."

A diplomatic source in Algiers said that Ethiopia would be issuing what he believed would be a generally positive statement on the substance of the talks.

And Washington's special representative, Anthony Lake, who is in Algiers, said he was encouraged by Eritrea's acceptance of the plan and by Ethiopia's comments that it considers the talks to have been successful.

Buffer force

The OAU plan to deploy peacekeepers appears to be aimed at accommodating a recent Ethiopian demand for international security guarantees before it pulls back its troops.

Fighting has displaced thousands of civilians

The force would remain until the disputed border was demarcated by an international team.

Ethiopia would be required to redeploy its troops within two weeks of the arrival of the peacekeepers, and there would be a 25km zone of separation between the two armies.

Ethiopia's proposal - made public a week after the current round of talks began - was for the neutral force to be deployed on Eritrean territory. It is not yet known whether the OAU's proposal involves peacekeepers on Ethiopian soil as well.