Eritrea says official will meet UN peace envoy

Fri June 18, 2004 4:34 PM GMT+02:00

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An Eritrean official and U.N. special envoy Lloyd Axworthy will hold an exploratory meeting to discuss the world body's efforts to resolve a border dispute with former foe Ethiopia, an Eritrean spokesman said on Friday.

"There will be an exploratory meeting... we will send an envoy," presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel told Reuters by telephone from Asmara, adding the place and time had yet to be worked out.

"A diplomatic process is under way," he said, adding without elaborating that Eritrea was seeking clarification of Axworthy's mandate.

Asked for comment on the planned meeting, a U.N. official in Asmara referred media queries to the U.N. Department of Political Affairs in New York.

Appointed six months ago to mediate over the 1,000-km (600-mile) border between the two Horn of Africa countries, Axworthy received a warm welcome in Ethiopia from Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in February but was refused entry to Eritrea.

Eritrea in February described the appointment of the former Canadian foreign minister as illegal and a bid to appease its larger neighbour, with whom it fought a bloody 1998-2000 war.

The two-year conflict killed an estimated 70,000 people in combat that often recalled the trench warfare of World War One.

The peace process has been stalled since Ethiopia refused to accept the ruling of independent boundary commission over where the disputed border should lie.

In April Eritrea said it was willing to meet Axworthy as long as he did not try to change the commission's decision, adding it wanted an assurance that Axworthy would speed up the border demarcation.

Gebremeskel on Friday dismissed remarks by a diplomat quoted by Reuters on Thursday that Eritrea in effect was snubbing Axworthy by sending an envoy to talk to him, rather than holding a formal meeting with him as a government.

"This is not a snub. To interpret this as a snub is wrong and is disinformation," Gebremeskel said.

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