DJIBOUTI, Nov 10 (AFP) - - Eritrea has demanded that Djibouti withdraw from a committee mediating its border dispute with Ethiopia, accusing it of helping Ethiopia's war effort, Foreign Minister Mohamed Moussa Chehem said Tuesday, rejecting the charge as "baseless."

Djibouti President Hassan Gouled Aptidon, along with Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe make up an Organisation of African Unity (OAU) mediation committee trying to resolve a six-month-old conflict over the ill-defined border, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) long.

They proposed a peace plan at a mini-summit in Ouagadougou at the weekend which Ethiopia accepted but Eritrea rejected.

It calls for a withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the Badme region they occupied in early May, the deployment of a peacekeeping force, and delineation of the border under UN supervision within six months.

Djibouti is demanding an official apology from Asmara for the charge that it is helping Ethiopia, the minister told journalists.

He said Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki had declared during the Ouagadougou summit that he had proof of Djibouti's involvement.

Relations risked running into "serious difficulties," he added, saying the charge was "grave, slanderous, and baseless."

Several hundred French army, navy and air force troops based in Djibouti have meanwhile travelled to the northern Obock area on the border with Eritrea over the past two days, reliable sources told AFP.

A Djibouti military source said the well-equipped troops were undertaking "routine manoeuvres."

The minister said that the stance of Djibouti, which has borders with both Eritrea and Ethiopia, had not changed on their conflict: "seeking to reconcile brother-enemies to save the sub-region from the anguish of a new war."

He pointed out that Gouled had earlier engaged in shuttle diplomacy between Asmara and Addis Ababa in a bid to end the conflict, and said the Ouagadougou summit had failed because of Afeworki's "obstinacy."

Landlocked Ethiopia, which previously used the Eritrean ports of Assab and Massawa, now conducts most of its maritime trade through Djibouti's port.