Farmers contacted in northern Parana state, the most southerly and hence most vulnerable growing area, said minimum temperatures early Sunday reached between three and seven degrees Celsius (37 to 45 Fahrenheit) but with no frost.

``What has in fact saved them has been the cloud and the wind. It was really very cold,'' said Marcio Custodio of independent meteorologists Somar, based in Sao Paulo.

Strong winds were reported at Mandaguari outside the key coffee town of Maringa in northern Parana and also at Nova Londrina in the state's far northwest corner.

Farmers in Santo Antonio da Platina in Parana's northeast said good cloud cover had prevented any damage.

Due to its flattish terrain, Parana is more vulnerable to clear skies and calm winds while in other more rugged Brazilian coffee states such as Minas Gerais the fear is that windchill will drag low temperatures even lower.

``Wind would help you in this case, not hurt you in terms of preventing frost damage,'' said Mike Palmerino of U.S. forecasters Weather Services Corp. (WSC).

The coldest temperatures were confined to Parana and isolated areas of Sao Paulo state. At the airport in Pocos de Caldas, known as one of Brazil's coldest coffee areas and located in Minas Gerais state, the minimum reached 7 C (45 F).

The cold-air mass, whose core pressure was measured Saturday at a hefty 1,042 millibars (mb), occupies a vast area stretching from southern Argentina to Parana, although its outer fringes have a much lower pressure.

Its centre is located between northern Argentina and Uruguay and should now move towards the Atlantic. But coffee farmers and meteorologists are still on frost alert for the early hours of Monday as the weather system slowly makes its departure from continental South America.

Any pressure greater than 1,030 mb is normally considered as a potential frost threat to the Brazilian coffee belt, though agronomists view 1,035 mb as near certainty.

Reports of cold winter weather in Brazil, the world's largest grower and exporter of coffee, normally send international prices soaring.

Reports of much colder weather moving into Brazil's coffee belt over the weekend sent bullish shivers through coffee traders at New York's Coffee Sugar and Cocoa Exchange.

``There could be some damaging cold...it is possible. The area we're really zeroing in on now is northern Parana,'' said Weather Services Corp. meteorologist Mike Palmerino. Palmerino said northern Parana state would be very vulnerable, particularly as the forecast was for clear skies and calm winds, which could add to the cold snap's intensity.

``Some damage to new crop coffee in northern Parana appears possible due to frost and light freezing temperatures,'' said a Weather Services Corp. report.

Brazil's 1999/2000 coffee crop is estimated at 27.5 million (60-kg) bags, according to a Reuters poll of eight European and U.S. traders and analysts. About 70 percent of that has been harvested.

Ethiopia cancelled all flights between the two countries in September 1995, as part of sanctions against the Sudanese government which it accused of involvement in a June 1995 attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.

But since Ethiopia's border war with neighbouring Eritrea began in May of last year, both sides have moved to mend relations with Sudan.

Ethiopian Airlines resumed its twice-weekly flight to the Sudanese capital Khartoum last October.

``Our projection shows that Ethiopia is now in a position to export up to 100,000 tonnes of sugar to the world market in 1999/2000 and earn around $22 million in foreign currency,'' said Shewaferaw Girma, General Manager of the state-owned Ethiopian Sugar Industry Support Centre.

He said the exports were made possible by the opening earlier this year of the country's fourth sugar factory at Finchaa in western Ethiopia, which is itself expected to produce 85,000 tonnes of sugar a year. Shewaferaw told Reuters Ethiopia expected to produce around 275,000 tonnes of sugar in the coming season from around 23,500 hectares of irrigated cane-field.

Stocks carried over from the current season will also help satisfy annual domestic consumption of 200,000 tonnes, he said.

Ethiopia has one of the lowest levels of per capita sugar consumption in the world, at just 3.5 kg per head per year, against an average of 20 kg per head in sub-Saharan Africa, government figures show.

Shewaferaw said two of the country's other sugar factories at Wonji and Shoa, were also being rehabilitated with the aim of improving their daily cane-crushing capacity to 4,000 tonnes from the current 3,000 tonnes.

The government hopes the start of sugar exports will help to diversify Ethiopia's economy away from its dependence on coffee, which currently accounts for around 60 percent of foreign currency earnings.

Sugar was introduced into Ethiopia during the Italian occupation of 1936-41. Before that, Ethiopians drank sugarless coffee or even spiced it with a pinch of salt.