The EU delegation met the Eritrean President, Issaias Afewerki, on Saturday, as part of renewed diplomatic efforts to halt the border war in the Horn of Africa.

"Unfortunately, the answers that we were given by our interlocutors as to their willingness to agree to an immediate ceasefire were not satisfactory," German Deputy Foreign Minister Ludger Volmer, who headed the delegation, said after the talks.

Mr Volmer reiterated the EU's commitment to a peace plan proposed by the Organisation of African Unity and backed by the United Nations.

Ethiopian meeting

The EU mission, with representatives from Germany, Finland and Austria, met the Ethiopian Foreign Minister in Addis Ababa on Friday.

It is the first diplomatic mission to shuttle between Addis Ababa and Asmara since fighting broke out two weeks ago after a lull lasting eight months.

Eritrea feels its position has been strengthened by the round of new fighting, blaming Ethiopia for launching the offensive in the disputed area of Badme, and breaking a moratorium on air strikes.

Before the fighting started, diplomatic efforts had concentrated on trying to persuade the two sides to agree on a framework to end the crisis.

Peace plan

The OAU plan calls for:

• Eritrean troops to withdraw from positions they occupied when the conflict began in May
• the deployment for six months of a peacekeeping and observer force
• neutral delineation of the border

Resentment in Eritrea

Eritrea had asked for clarification on a number of points because it thought that the document favoured Ethiopia.

In Asmara, it is widely believed that mediation efforts in general have yielded to Ethiopia's point of view because of the concern of the international community to ensure that Ethiopia, as the much larger neighbour, remains stable.