Children killed in Ethiopia stampede

Eritreans pray for peace at a special service in Asmara

Reports from Ethiopia say that 14 children have been killed and more than 50 others injured during a stampede at a memorial service for war victims.

Ethiopian radio said the victims were aged between six and 14.

Witnesses quoted by Reuters news agency said the stampede broke out when rain started falling on the Addis Ababa amphitheatre where thousands of students were watching a cultural show called to commemorate an Eritrean air raid.

One witness said: "There was pandemonium and utter confusion as the injured started wailing and calling for help."

Monday's ceremony was called to mark the second anniversary of an Eritrean air raid on the northern Ethiopian town of Mekele in which 59 people were killed and 184 injured.

Many were children from a school which took the brunt of the bombs. Eritrea said at the time that it had targeted military installations and the school had been hit by accident.

Slow progress on talks

Meanwhile in Eritrea, fighting has continued near the post of Assab on the eastern front.

The French AFP news agency quoted Eritrean presidential spokesman Yemane Ghebremeskel as saying there was fierce fighting between ground troops.

"There is heavy shelling and movements of their aircraft," he said.

Ethiopia confirmed that fighting was taking place in eastern Eritrea, but a spokeswoman denied any intention of taking Assab.

At the on-going mediation talks in Algeria, the authorities have imposed a news blackout.

They asked journalists to leave an official guest-house in Algiers, where international mediators led by the Organisation of African Unity are holding indirect talks with the Ethiopian and Eritrean foreign ministers.

"They are working. There is nothing for the media today," an official said.

The OAU says the two sides are discussing a proposed ceasefire and troop withdrawals as a first step to resolving the dispute.

Observers

Anthony Lake, the US envoy at the talks, said that progress was being made, but it was too early to predict the outcome.

Analysts predicted an Ethiopian attack on Assab

The peace plan includes provision for the eventual deployment of international observers along the disputed border, according to a Western diplomat.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Saturday that his country's forces would withdraw from Eritrean territory they now occupy, if an international force were stationed on that land.

Correspondents say this was the first time Mr Meles had explained that an international force deployed inside Eritrea should be the provider of such guarantees.

The two countries share a poorly defined border some 1,000km (620 miles) long.

Prisoners of war

Ethiopia is holding 1,500 Eritrean prisoners of war at a makeshift camp in the north of the country.

Eritrean refugees arrive at a refugee camp in Sudan

A BBC correspondent who visited the camp said that the captured Eritreans are disillusioned with the war and hope it will end.

They receive basic food and water rations, but medical supplies are limited.

Sudan has urged the international community not to forget the thousands of Eritrean refugees who have fled into the country to escape the fighting.

An estimated 50,000 refugees fled from western Eritrea into Sudan last month.

As many as 750,000 Eritreans are thought to have been forced to flee their homes and farms as Ethiopia's army advances.

World Food Programme spokeswoman Lindsey Davies said most of the displaced had moved to camps and were in "fair" condition.

They had left their farms during the crucial planting season, she added, and would need to be back in the fields within two months if they were to harvest crops in November.