The U.S. State Department halted the delivery of emergency food aid to Eritrea since 45,000 tons of U.S. grain meant for starving Ethiopians was confiscated by Eritrean authorities.

Hugh Parmer of the U. S. Agency for International Development said the State Department had lifted the ban, and the agency would provide the northeast African country with 41,000 tons of food this year.

U.S. officials are still negotiating with Eritrea to resolve the issue of the confiscated food aid. The 45,000 tons of grain was worth about $4.5 million and was taken from Eritrea's Red Sea port of Assab.

Parmer is meeting officials of the Rome-based U.N. World Food Program after completing a two-week tour of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti to assess the needs of some 15 million people threatened by food shortages brought on by prolonged drought.

He said he was trying to establish a "humanitarian corridor" between Ethiopia and Eritrea that would enable aid agencies to bring food assistance to Ethiopia through the Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa.

The ports were the main routes for humanitarian assistance for landlocked Ethiopia before the border war between the Horn of Africa neighbors broke out.

Alemu Belew, said "more than 500 year-old trees as well as coffee and bamboo trees are completely destroyed. It will take 10 to 20 years to replace the forest."

Until February, a diverse range of animals, including rare species such as the nyala, the red fox, Menelik's bushbuck and Swayne's hartebeest, had co- existed - though not always in harmony - in the 514 sq km Nechsar Game Park and in the 1,500 sq km Bale Mountain Park in southern Ethiopia.

But now the fire has greatly reduced the number of the animals in these parks. "It is a disaster not only for Ethiopia but for the world's heritage and wealth," Tesfaye Hundesa of the Wild Animals Protection and Development Organisation said.

Both national parks, also home to more than 23 species of birds, had always remained underdeveloped due to lack of funds. Of the 580,000 hectares of forestry in Bale and Borena bordering Kenya, 70,00 hectares are now ashes.

Although the cause of the fire has not been determined as of yet, it is widely believed that farmers may have started it when they tried to clear the forest for planting or by honey hunters who use fire to smoke out the bees from their hives in trees.

Natural resources are the foundation of the economy of Ethiopia. Smallholder farming in some areas, including forestry land, is the dominant sector accounting for 45 percent of the GDP, 85 percent of exports and 80 percent of total employment.

Borna and Bale, where the fire occurred, are predominantly inhabited by the Oromo, the largest ethnic group, numbering 24 million out of 60 million Ethiopians, according to the latest statistics.

The huge forest fire caught the government unawares. In the absence of fire- fighting equipment and specialised manpower to fight such forest fires, it became necessary to appeal to the international community for help.

South Africans, Germans and Americans responded favourably. It took them and 70,000 members of the defence forces, farmers and students weeks to contain the fire.

"I appreciate the timely response of the South Africans. They were the first to come to the rescue of Mozambicans and now Ethiopians. They have demonstrated in concrete terms the importance of African solidarity, Yohannes Gedamu, a well known painter, said.

But it was felt by some political parties that the state paid little attention to the wild fire, especially in the beginning.

Mihret Debebe, acting general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, told a meeting of major consumers that power would be cut for 13 hours every fourth day from Thursday.

Supplies would be disconnected from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (0400-1700 GMT) until the main rainy season started in July.

``The failure of the short rains and the ever increasing demand for power supply has prompted the need for power rationing,'' Mihret said.

Million Bekele, an official in the Ministry of Agriculture, told Reuters that the Bale region fire which had burnt some 40,000 hectares of forestland had been extinguished.

The fires in Swana and Angete in Borena were still burning but were expected to be put out by Tuesday, he said.

The forest fires had been raging for about a month.

South African and Ethiopian fire fighters used helicopters and a spotter plane to contain the blazes with the help of about 70,000 soldiers, farmers and students.

Million said the 35 South African fire fighters were expected to leave for home on Tuesday.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Assistant Administrator for Humanitarian Relief Hugh Parmer told a news conference he had seen distressing situations in eastern Ethiopia, the worst affected region.

He ordered an immediate airlift of 20 tons of blended foods, therapeutic milk and high-energy biscuits for a special feeding program to the region.

``The situation is serious enough, we could not wait. The Ethiopian government is providing food to the region, but there are so many people and the situation is deteriorating so rapidly,'' Parmer said at the end of a four-day visit.

``In Gode town I was told that 45 children under the ages of five have died during the last two weeks due to malnutrition and related illnesses,'' he said, appealing to European nations also to help.

The first shipment of 85,000 tons of food aid was scheduled to arrive at the Red Sea Port of Djibouti on April 15, said Parmer, who visited Gode and Kelafo in eastern Ethiopia, and North Wollo, the epicenter of the 1984/85 famine in which over a million people are thought to have perished.

But he said the situation could worsen if rains did not fall soon.

Parmer, from cattle-rearing Texas in the U.S., said he was deeply saddened by the thousands of carcasses he had seen littering the landscape in areas outside Gode town which has suffered from drought for the past three years.

The deaths were just one symptom of a growing food shortage in this region where drought has created a near-desert, killed thousands of the livestock that people rely on for food and income and left millions of people at risk.

"It's a crisis, and we have got to act fast to make sure more people don't die,'' said Hugh Parmer, the agency's assistant administrator. "What really moved me to take action is hearing of all those children dying. We have got to do something about that.''

Parmer is on a two-week tour of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti and Kenya to assess the needs of some 15 million people threatened by food shortages. He told The Associated Press that conditions are critical in the region. He said he wanted an air drop of food to take place in the next 10 days.

On Tuesday, Parmer visited a feeding center in Gode, 360 miles southeast of the capital, Addis Ababa. There, 90 severely malnourished children under age 5 are being treated. Regional authorities told him eight children had died in the center since it opened two weeks ago. Another 45 died in camps set up for the growing number of hungry, desperate people streaming into town.

Adan Mohammed said she spent 10 days walking 60 miles to the center with her three children in hopes of receiving food. The family's 200 cattle and sheep died in the drought.

But the trek proved too much for her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. Both died shortly after reaching Gode four months ago.

Protectively cradling the tiny twin of the dead one-year-old in her arms, Adan she said she had not seen rain for 18 months.

"I don't know anything any more,'' she said. "I just have to wait for something from God.'' According to local officials, the twice-yearly seasonal rains have failed for the last three years in the Gode area, turning the land into a near-desert.

The majority of the 460,000 people in the area, where temperatures regularly soar above 105 degrees, are nomadic herders. Ibrahim Haji Abdi, chairman of the regional emergency task force, said drought had killed more than 50 percent of their sheep and cattle and 20 percent of their camels, leaving them starving and helpless.

"It's never been this bad, not since 1984,'' he said.

A catastrophic drought in Ethiopia in 1984-85 resulted in a major famine, the first one whose effects were seen around the world on television.

"We are two months from serious crisis if considerably more aid doesn't arrive,'' said David Eckerson, USAID's director for Ethiopia. The agency estimates that 7.7 million people have been effected.