"Our defence forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred," Meles Zenawi told MPs.

An Eritrean minister said Mr Meles was "paranoid" and trying to divert attention from his domestic problems. He denied backing Ethiopian rebels.

The two neighbours fought a border war from 1998-2000, in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

They back rival sides in Somalia and there had been fears that they could clash there through local proxies.

Mr Meles also accused Eritrea of backing its rebel groups, in particular in Ethiopia's Somali region.

Talks

United Nations peacekeepers are monitoring a buffer zone along the border but Ethiopia has long accused Eritrean troops of infiltrating the zone.

Under the deal to end their war, an independent boundary commission ruled on where the countries' border should lie in 2002.

It awarded the town of Badme to Eritrea but Ethiopia has not handed it over.

Mr Meles told parliament that he did not agree with the border ruling but said he accepted it.

"We believe the ruling was wrong, we still believe it is wrong, but we accept the ruling even though it is wrong."

He said he was ready to hold talks with Eritrea about implementing the ruling but Eritrea says there is nothing to talk about - Ethiopia should just withdraw from Badme.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu said Mr Meles' comments were another attempt to delay implementation of the boundary commission's ruling.

Eritrea wants the international community to put more pressure on Ethiopia to comply with the ruling.

In November 2006, the commission gave the rivals a year to physically demarcate their border or risk having it set for them.

AP - June 14, 2007

Eritrea rejects Ethiopian acceptance of commission's ruling in tense border dispute

UNITED NATIONS: Eritrea rejected Ethiopia's "unconditional" acceptance of a U.N. boundary commission ruling that it return a disputed town to Eritrea, arguing Friday that its agreement contained stipulations that undermined the spirit of the ruling.

In a letter last week to the U.N. Security Council, the Ethiopian government agreed to the commission's decision, announced five years ago, that it return the key town of Badme to Eritrea. The status of the town was part of a tense, nine-year-long, border dispute.

But in its own letter to the council on Friday, Eritrea blamed the Security Council for failing to force Ethiopia to turn over Badme and "encouraging Ethiopia to flout the rule of law."

Amanuel Giorgio, a diplomat at Eritrea's U.N. Mission, said "so far as Eritrea is concerned, Ethiopia continues to present conditionalities to the decision of the boundary commission which is final and binding."

"It's asking the Security Council to demand that Eritrea enter into dialogue," he said. "That means reopening the decision of the boundary commission. Our reading of the letter is that Ethiopia has not yet changed its position."

No one at the Ethiopian U.N. mission was immediately available for comment.

This is the latest round of mudslinging between the two dueling nations that both claim Badme and fought a bloody 2 1/2-year war after Ethiopian soldiers opened fire on Eritrean soldiers in the border town in 1998.

The Horn of Africa neighbors initially promised to accept the boundary commission's 2002 ruling awarding the disputed town to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not handed it over.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year guerrilla war. Ethiopian officials have long accused Eritrea of terrorist acts in Ethiopia and for lending support to insurgent groups in Somalia.

A 2000 truce agreeing to cease hostilities has made the border more peaceful, but tensions have occasionally flared to the point that international observers feared a new war could break out.

Last week, Ethiopia harshly criticized Eritrea's military occupation of a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) U.N. mandated buffer zone.

Eritrean forces have moved into the zone over the past year and stymied efforts by U.N. peacekeepers to monitor the area. The Security Council has repeatedly called for Eritrea to lift its restrictions, including its ban on U.N. helicopter flights and night patrols.

Eritrea also blames Ethiopia for blocking the peacekeeping mission on the border, accusing them of "harassing" U.N. personnel and engaging in a steady buildup of forces in the southern portion of the buffer zone.

There is not much the U.N. can do to force the two parties to cooperate, U.N. associate spokesman Yves Sorokobi said Thursday.

"The U.N. has not handed out any punishment to Eritrea even though it is aware for several months now," he added.

The commission renewed its call for a response from the two countries last month, giving a November deadline for the implementation of its decision on the new border.

Eritrea responded to the commission's request in May, agreeing with the decision.

Since its publication last week, there had been virtually no reaction to the Ethiopian acceptance until Friday.

Sorokobi said there have been no relations between the two sides.

The Security Council will be in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday and Saturday to meet with African Union and Ethiopian officials at the start of a five-country African mission. Sorokobi said the Ethiopia-Eritrea border issue will probably be discussed.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in the tense buffer zone has been reduced in the past year by 2,500 troops to 1,700. Authorization for the force expires next month, but Sorokobi said it will likely be extended.

If the new border decision is not implemented, Sorokobi warned that "positions will probably harden."

"There has been an increase of hostile rhetoric from both parties and it's something that has preoccupied the situation," he said.

To understand with what kind of an inconstant, fickle, double-minded, changeable Ethiopian Regime the Eritrean People have to deal please read following selected items to judge and review yourself:

September 6 -7, 2007
Ethiopia cannot accept the Commission’s coordinates
http://www.biddho.com/content/view/67/29/lang,english/

Saturday, 13 October 2007
Eritrea: President Says Border Issues 'Must Be Resolved'
http://www.biddho.com/content/view/240/29/lang,english/

INTERVIEW-Ethiopia can't legally scrap border ruling-Eritrea
http://www.biddho.com/content/view/180/29/lang,english/

Letter to UNSG; President of the UNSC; UNSC Member States; Witnesses, EU
http://www.biddho.com/content/view/248/29/lang,english/

19 October 2007
Press Release: No Urgent Matter than Restoring the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities
http://www.biddho.com/content/view/302/29/lang,english/

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