TSORONA, Eritrea, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Ethiopia and Eritrea accused each other on Tuesday of planning fresh attacks along their disputed border, with Addis Ababa saying it would close schools along the frontier as a security measure.

Ethiopian government spokeswoman Salome Taddesse said Eritrea was preparing a military strike against northern Ethiopia after seven months with little fighting in the dispute between the two Horn of Africa neighbours.

``The government has ordered schools and colleges in Mekele, Adwa, Axum and other towns in the (northern) region to be closed for fear that Eritrea would attack them as it did in June of 1998,'' Selome told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital.

The schools are now, anyway, on holiday.

An Eritrean local administrator, meanwhile, said at least 55,000 Ethiopian troops -- including mechanised and artillery brigades -- had massed opposite the southern Eritrean border town of Tsorona in preparation for an attack.

Hundreds died last May and June when a border dispute between the two former allies erupted into a ground and air war fought at three points along the 1,000-km (625-mile) frontier.

These included the border village of Zalambessa, a triangle of land around Badme and an area southwest of the Eritrean port of Assab.

``Tsorona was supposed to be the quietest front in the old confrontation area,'' Ahferom Tewolde, a local administrator in the town, told Reuters. ``There was no big army from the Ethiopian or the Eritrean side.''

``But...in the last month and a half the Ethiopians started to bring new brigades to this area and dig new trenches. Now it is more than 15 or 16 brigades. Some have come from Badme and Mekele, including one of the strongest mechanised brigades,'' he said.

Tsorona, with a population of around 5,000, is around 45 km (30 miles) west of Zalambessa. The town lies on a flat plain between two mountain ranges, through which wind the two main roads linking Eritrea with its southern neighbour.

Eritrean officials said Tsorona was militarily significant because of its access to the major Eritrean town of Dekamhare, 90 km (55 miles) further north. Dekamhare is just 35 km (20 miles) south of Asmara.

Eritrean military officials declined to give figures for the number of its soldiers on the border and denied Reuters correspondents access on security grounds to the frontline.

A Reuters reporter saw around 150 soldiers as well as a heavy artillery piece. Military sources said there was a much larger troop deployment close to the frontline.

Diplomatic efforts to prevent further fighting and resolve the conflict have been stepped up this month.

(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in ADDIS ABABA)