12:31 p.m. Aug 03, 1998 Eastern
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said on Monday that the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) supported Ethiopian claims to border territory claimed also by Eritrea.
``The OAU ministerial report established beyond doubt the fundamental fact that the disputed Badme and Shiraro (areas) were under Ethiopian administration before the Eritrean invasion on May 6, 1998,'' Seyoum told a news conference on his return from an OAU meeting in Burkina Faso.
The only official statement from the weekend OAU meeting has been a call for both sides to resist new fighting.
But, according to a diplomat familiar with an OAU report to be presented to African heads of state, it confirms Badme was under Ethiopian administration before May.
In Asmara, the Eritrean government had little to say on the Burkina Faso meeting save to say it was not expected to bring an immediate resolution to the conflict.
Eritrea took independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after its fighters formed the backbone of a resistance army that fought a lengthy war against former Marxist military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam.
The two sides quibbled peacefully for years over their border -- using colonial maps and more recent surveys to argue their case -- but the dispute turned violent on May 6 with each accusing the other of invading.
There have been no reports of border fighting for several weeks and the air raids that characterised the conflict's early days have also stopped.