Ethiopia has declared its two-year border war with neighbouring Eritrea effectively over.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr Meles Zenawi, told Western diplomats in Addis Ababa yesterday his troops were ending their offensive and he was prepared to negotiate a ceasefire agreement. Ethiopia is ready for face-to-face talks, he said.
Ethiopia launched the surprise offensive 2 1/2 years ago after peace talks sponsored by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) collapsed. Since then it has captured all the disputed territories and penetrated deep into Eritrea.
Mr Meles said his forces would pull back to their positions of May 1998, when hostilities broke out, provided that the "security of the disputed areas could be guaranteed by the international community".
If such guarantees could not be obtained, Ethiopia would protect the land "with the sanction of the international community".
For now, Ethiopia will continue to occupy all of the disputed zones as well as surrounding strategic positions, some of which are on uncontested Eritrean territory.
One diplomat present at the meeting said the declaration was "very positive" but whether it meant the final end of the war depended on the Eritrean reaction. Another diplomatic source noted that Mr Meles was careful not to declare victory and "rub Eritrea's nose in it".
The declaration sets the stage for the OAU proximity peace talks that were reconvened in Algiers on Tuesday. Ethiopia and Eritrea are being represented at the talks by their foreign ministers.
So far there has been little hope of an early settlement. Eritrea wants to implement an earlier OAU framework agreement for peace while Ethiopia claims that its recent military victories have changed the situation.
Mr Meles told yesterday's meeting that while his initial aim was to reverse the Eritrean aggression by peaceful means, "that has now been done by military means so some of the points are out of date". Both countries have been talking tough since peace talks failed earlier this month. Eritrea accused Ethiopia of an "invasion" while Ethiopia insisted it only wanted to secure the disputed lands.
"These guys fought together, speak the same language and some are related to one another - that's probably why they get under each other's skin so well," one Western analyst said.
The Oromo Liberation Front, which wants independence from Ethiopia, yesterday claimed it bombed a train carrying armaments 10 miles outside the eastern town of Dire Dawa, a claim rejected by the Ethiopian government as a "total lie".