When Abebe Bikila ran, poetry rode along on his slim shoulders. To watch old film of the legendary Ethiopian in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he competed barefoot and straight and proud, is to understand that for the chosen few, running a marathon is the most natural thing in the world.

When Fatuma Roba takes off from Hopkinton on Monday in search of her third consecutive Boston Marathon win - a feat accomplished by only one woman, Uta Pippig, since women were officially allowed to compete in 1972 - there will be many reasons to be reminded of Bikila.

Roba's style, fluid and seemingly without idiosyncrasy.

Her carriage, one of grace and subtle authority.

And her dreams, grand and humble at the same time.

''My dream is to win again the Olympics, like my countryman,'' she said this week through a translator, a day after arriving from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ''To match the same story.''

In 1960, few had heard of Bikila before he won that Olympic marathon, becoming the first black African to do so and the first Ethiopian to bring home a gold medal. His time of 2 hours 15 minutes 17 seconds was a world record. In 1964, he repeated his triumph in Tokyo, this time in 2:12:12, another world record.

''He opened the door, not only for all Ethiopians but for all Africans,'' said the 27-year-old Roba, born just a year before Bikila died of a brain hemorrhage in 1973 after being left paralyzed from a car crash in 1969. He received a state funeral in Addis.

In 1996, few had heard of Roba before she entered Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlanta far in front of her competitors, taking the gold medal in 2:26:05 and, in the process, opening still more doors. ''This is not only a very special thing for me, but also for my country and all African women,'' she said after the victory, still wrapped in her country's flag.

''I am not a hero like him, but a lot of people know me because I make the same history at the Olympics,'' said the first black African woman to win marathon gold. ''Especially children. Now they want to be like me.'' Whe

n Roba first came to Boston, in 1997, she was intent on validating her win in Atlanta. She succeeded, dominating in the Newton hills and outlasting South Africa's Elana Meyer and Colleen De Reuck in 2:26:23 to become the first African woman to win here and ending the three-year reign of Pippig, who finished fourth. Last year, Roba left De Reuck at the 16-mile mark and ran smoothly, despite pain behind her left knee that had hampered her training and hurt throughout the race, to win in a personal-best time of 2:23:21.

But, oddly, she has not run well elsewhere. At the World Championships in Athens in 1997, she dropped out midway with a leg injury. At Tokyo in 1997 she was fourth, in 2:30:39; last year she could manage no better than eighth there in 2:36:22, running with a cold.

''Chance,'' answered Roba when asked why she runs so superbly in Boston while struggling on other courses.

Not entirely, said her agent, Mark Wetmore of Global Athletics & Marketing. ''I don't think she's as good on a flat course,'' he offered. ''She's very much faster on a difficult course. She thinks if she can break the world record, she can do it here.''

Although Roba remains reluctant to speak English, she has begun spending more time in this country. For several months after last year's race, she and several other Ethiopian runners, including 1989 Boston champion Abebe Mekonnen, rented a house on South Mission Beach in San Diego.

''They fit right in,'' said Mike Long of Elite Racing Inc., who helped arrange the getaway. Running with a local club on Saturday mornings, barbecuing, sunbathing, even playing volleyball (''They'd sneak down when no one was there and they'd try batting the ball around,'' said Long of their introduction to the sport) appealed to the vacationers, although Roba drew the line at riding the roller coaster.

This year, Roba will return to her homeland right after the race, to a nearly completed three-story house and to the inspiration of Bikila's legend.

Bikila, however, did not run well in his only Boston appearance, finishing fifth in 1963 in 2:24:43. At the time, he was the seventh Olympic gold medalist to fail in Boston.

Asked yesterday if she was aware that her time here last year was faster than Bikila's in '63, Roba looked puzzled, even annoyed. What is your question? she wanted to know. He must have had a bad race, she insisted, quick to defend her legendary countryman.

Sudan's President Lieutenant-General Omar Hassan al-Bashir met Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki in Libya on the sidelines of a recent summit of Sahel and Saharan states in Libya's coastal city of Sirte, state-run radio Omdurman said.

The radio quoted Bashir as saying that Libya was trying to heal the rift between Sudan and Eritrea and that the parties agreed to hold further talks.

Talks would continue at the level of foreign ministers and be extended to include Qatar, which has also been mediating in the conflict between Sudan and Eritrea, Bashir added.

The Sudanese and Eritrean foreign ministers signed a memorandum of understanding in Doha in November last year to end their differences by peaceful means, but about a month later Sudan accused Eritrea of shelling several Sudanese villages.

In January this year, Sudan accused Eritrea of massing troops on the border in preparation for an attack.

Eritrea broke off diplomatic ties with Sudan in December 1994, after accusing Khartoum of supporting anti-Eritrean Moslem militants.

Sudan denied the charge and accuses Eritrea of backing the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which seeks the overthrow of Bashir's government.

The radio said Gaddafi also planned to meet former Sudanese prime minister Sadeq al-Mahdi, whom Bashir overthrew in a military coup in 1989, to try to support peace efforts in Sudan.

Mahmoud Abdel-Halim Abu-Zeid did not say how much more water Egypt, which receives the largest share of Nile water, wants. But he said increasing it would happen only with the cooperation and agreement on the part of the Nile basin countries.

``We have future requests,'' Abu Zeid told The Associated Press at the two-day Arab Conference on Water and Desertification, which opened Saturday. ``Of course, other countries also have requests.''

He did not say how Egypt intends to persuade other nations, each with their own serious water needs, to allow Egypt a larger share.

Under a 1959 agreement, Egypt receives three times as much water as Sudan from the Nile. Water-tapped countries, including Sudan and Ethiopia, have called for equal shares for each country regardless of population or agricultural needs.

Ethiopia has argued that several ambitious Egyptian agricultural projects begun within the last few years are part of an Egyptian attempt to secure even more of the water and disregard the needs of other countries.

Djibouti's Foreign Minister Muhammad Musa Chehem this week accused Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki of "intransigence" blaming him for "the failure of all the regional and international initiatives aimed at resolving the Ethiopian-Eritrean border conflict" .

Speaking to the Saudi-owned newspaper Al-Hayat, based in London, Mr Chehem said Djibouti "fears that the continuation of the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict will drag it towards the swamp of border conflicts, with these conflicts extending towards Djibouti's territory" .

Mr Chehem described the Eritrean leader's behaviour as " irrational and insane" .