Ethiopia has won a crucial battle in its war with Eritrea, which may hasten the end of the two-year conflict.
Ethiopia captured the heavily defended and symbolic strong point of Zalambessa early yesterday after a short, two-day battle outside the town. Eritrean troops left the town centre hours before the Ethiopian flag was hoisted. Eritrea said it had retreated to facilitate the peace process sponsored by the Organisation for African Unity (OAU). But Ethiopia insisted it had scored a military victory. "The remnants of their troops are fleeing and being destroyed. So nobody withdrew. They were kicked out and they had better accept defeat," an Ethiopian government spokeswoman, Ms Salome Taddesse, said yesterday morning.
Ethiopians were celebrating last evening as news of the victory emerged. In the town of Mekele, 100 miles south of the disputed area, secondary school children paraded through the town centre playing band music. They chanted: "Zalambessa, my beloved land, you are liberated."
Zalambessa was one of the first towns that Eritrean troops took at the start of hostilities in May 1998 and became one of the most fiercely contested areas. Before the conflict most of the population was Ethiopian and the Ethiopian army commander-in-chief's family comes from the town.
Following a fierce two-week offensive, Ethiopia now controls nearly all of the disputed territory along its 620-mile border with Eritrea.
The main outstanding zone is at Bure, at the south-eastern corner of the 620-mile border. Bure has seen only light and sporadic fighting during the current offensive.
Although Eritrea now says it wants to return to negotiations, Ethiopia says it will continue fighting. Ms Taddesse reiterated the statement by the prime minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, that its strategy is to "negotiate by fighting and fight while negotiating".
The recent peace talks in Algeria collapsed because Ethiopia complained that Eritrea had demanded impossible preconditions. "It was a dialogue of the deaf," Mr Zenawi said afterwards.
The Eritrean retreat from Zalambessa is being seen as an attempt to take the moral high ground in advance of the inevitable resumption of peace talks.
Outside peace brokers have made intensive efforts over the last two weeks to force the two sides back to the negotiating table. An EU special envoy and the OAU president have shuttled between Mr Zenawi and his Eritrean counterpart, Mr Issias Afwerki, in recent days.
But in the end the military option has won out. Ethiopia has used surprise tactics and superior air firepower to move far beyond the disputed zone and deep into Eritrea.
It remains to be seen how far Ethiopia will attempt to advance into Eritrea before returning to peace talks - and on what terms.
At the United Nations, Security Council members yesterday welcomed Eritrea's intention to withdraw from territory occupied since the start of its war with Ethiopia two years ago and called on Ethiopia to pull back from areas it has captured since a February 1999 offensive.
The council's statement was issued the day after Eritrea announced its pull-back plans - in effect fulfilling its side of the OAU plan - while insisting it had not surrendered.
Ethiopia, proclaiming victory, pressed ahead with its latest offensive and said the war would not end until its neighbour's army no longer posed a threat.