Ethiopia and Eritrea appeared on the brink of another escalation in their violent border dispute yesterday after the Organisation of African Unity said its peace efforts had broken down.
The OAU Secretary General, Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, said Eritrea had formally rejected the proposals of a four-point peace plan during talks on Thursday.
"The delegation was not able at this juncture to make headway with respect to the facilitators' recommendations," Mr Salim said in reference to a US-Rwandan peace plan.
Diplomats say Eritrea rejected the peace plan because it called for Eritrean troops to withdraw to the positions they held before a first clash on May 6th.