ADDIS ABABA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - African leaders charged with mediating in a border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea are expected to meet in Burkina Faso early next month, Ethiopia said on Friday.

An Organisation of African Unity (OAU) committee -- comprising the Presidents of Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Djibouti -- should hold separate talks in early November with the leaders of the two Horn of Africa states before drawing up recommendations, the Ethiopian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement was issued after Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin returned from the Zimbabwean capital where he delivered a message from Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to President Robert Mugabe.

Ethiopia has said the OAU peace initiative is the only plan that could guarantee a negotiated solution to the conflict.

Hundreds were killed between May 6 and mid-June when a latent border dispute between the two former allies flared into violence.

Since then both sides have deployed tens of thousands of troops along the 1,000-km (600-mile) border, warning they could use force to resolve the dispute if negotiations fail.

At the same time both sides accuse the other of expelling thousands of citizens resident in each other's country.

The OAU mediation effort is based on an initiative put forward by the United States and Rwanda in early June, which calls for the withdrawal of Eritrean forces to positions held before May 6.

Eritrea rejects this key element of the plan and has called for face-to-face talks between its President Isayas Afewerki and Zenawi as well as an international monitoring force to be deployed in disputed areas before any withdrawal takes place.