ERITREA CAPITULATES

The admission came in a letter to the UN Security Council which met in emergency closed-door session on Saturday to discuss the latest developments.

In a letter to the Council on Saturday, Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki noted that his country had been seeking clarifications about the OAU peace framework, concerning the disputed territory of Badame.

But while the clarifications were being sought, Ethiopia violated the framework agreement, Afeworki said.

"The Ethiopian government now occupies by force Eritrean sovereign territory," the letter said.

"Nonetheless, the government of Eritrea accepts the OAU framework agreement to pave the way for an expedited demarcation."

The Eritrean move appears to have been motivated by advances made by Ethiopian troops, who according to the Eritrean ambassador had "advanced 10 kilometres (six miles) into Eritrean territory beyond the disputed Badame sector."

That admission by Eritrean Ambassador Haile Menkerios was contained in a letter from Security Council president Robert Fowler to the 14 other council members.

The 15-member U.N. Security Council, meeting in an emergency Saturday session, immediately welcomed Eritrea's statement and called for both sides to stop fighting immediately. It followed a similar statement from President Clinton in Los Angeles who said he had been informed of the decision by Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki by letter.

``The Security Council demands an immediate halt to all hostilities and calls on the parties to refrain from the further use of force,'' the council said in a statement issued at a formal meeting attended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

``The Security Council welcomes the acceptance by Eritrea at the Head of State level of the Organization of African Unity Framework Agreement and recalls the prior acceptance of the agreement by Ethiopia,'' said the statement, read by Council President Robert Fowler of Canada.

The council was responding to an official letter from Eritrea's U.N. ambassador Haile Menkerios, that said: ``The government of Eritrea accepts the OAU framework agreement to pave the way for an expedited demarcation,'' of its border.

Menkerios said that the ``Ethiopian government now occupies by force Eritrean sovereign territory'' in the conflict which U.N. trouble-shooter Mohammed Sahnoun earlier this month called ''nonsensical and unacceptable.''

Ethiopia previously accepted an OAU peace initiative brokered by the United States and Rwanda which called for Eritrea to withdraw to positions held before the conflict erupted. Until Saturday, Eritrea asked for an international monitoring force to be in place first.

The two East African neighbors in the Horn of Africa are contesting a largely uninhabited, rocky 150-square mile (390 sq km) patch of land in their 620 miles (1,000 kms) border that has never been totally demarcated.

Fighting intensified since Tuesday with each side claiming to have inflicted heavy loses on the other. In May and June more than 1,000 people were killed, after which unsuccessful negotiations began. The fighting resumed on Feb. 6.

The council, in its statement, expressed ``willingness to consider all appropriate support to implement a peace agreement between the two parties'' but did not spell out specifically what it would do.

The Council on Feb. 10 issued a similar appeal and also urged nations to halt arms sales to both sides. But that statement was not mandatory and diplomats said weapons were still flowing into the region from eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Sahnoun, at the time, said that both countries had acquired fighter planes and bombers, adding that the world might ``soon be witnessing the first high-tech war in Africa.''

Diplomats, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Eritrea's acceptance of the OAU proposal indicated its troops were in trouble at Badme and that the government feared Ethiopia would try to take more territory.

They noted Eritrea, with far less troops than Ethiopia, had put most of its forces at the front.

Reports from Asmara, the Eritrean capital, said that Eritrean troops beat a retreat in parts of Badme. Its radio contended more than 9,000 Ethiopian fighters were killed in the last four days after they broke through Eritrean defenses.

Menkerios, in his letter, said that Ethiopian troops advanced ``10 kilometers (six miles) into Eritrean territory beyond the disputed Badme sector,''

Ethiopia and Eritrea worked together to oust Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 after a long civil war. Two years later, Eritrea took independence from Ethiopia after a referendum. But relations soured and economic rivalry intensified after Eritrea introduced its own currency, the nakfa, in November 1997, to replace the Ethiopian birr.