The official told lawmakers that President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and National Security Adviser Samuel Berger "have made it very clear to both sides that we are committed to doing our utmost, in the use of our good offices, to bring this [conflict] to a peaceful resolution."

She added, however, that the Clinton administration, "in consultation with Congress, took the decision...that we would not provide direct financial assistance to either government in the wake of the outbreak of hostilities" between Ethiopia and Eritrea."

She added that the United States "will continue assistance to NGOs [non-governmental organizations] in project-based assistance, but non-project-based assistance has been suspended and continues to be suspended for the time being."

Rice pointed out that while "we have not been reluctant to make our good offices available...both sides need to be ready and willing to take constructive advantage of those good offices."

In answer to a question by Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce about a proposed U.S. debt relief package for Ethiopia worth $90 million, Rice said: "We had prior to the outbreak of the conflict planned to provide debt relief to a number of countries that met the administration's criteria. This is bilateral concessional debt and there have been staff consultations on this issue over the course of the last week, and the administration has committed to consult further with Congress on the debt relief issue described."

Representative Tom Campbell (Republican - California) expressed his frustration at the waste in lives and resources the conflict is costing and at the war's negative impact on the image of the two countries among the U.S. public. He recalled that last year he and his wife spent their Thanksgiving Day holiday visiting Ethiopia and Eritrea, noting that they "had such a great feeling of optimism, seeing how proud people were at the economic progress they were making."

Now, he added, "I don't know what is going to have to be done to get the attention" of the American public back on the positive things that can be accomplished by both nations.

Representative Ben Gilman, chairman of the full House International Relations Committee, made an unexpected appearance at the hearing and read a statement in which he termed the conflict a tragedy involving "two of Africa's shining lights."

Calling it "the largest war in the world today," Gilman said that a half million people are under arms, and that 40,000 have already been killed in the conflict that rages on the border between the two nations.

Haile Gebrselassie will bring the biggest smile, the greatest talent and the noisiest fan club in global athletics to Crystal Palace this summer to provide the perfect seal on the return of major track and field events to the capital.

Ethiopia's Olympic and triple world 10,000m champion, the effervescent little genius who has illuminated the sport these past five years with 15 world records, will attempt to add another by setting a new 3,000m landmark in the British Grand Prix on Saturday, 7 August. It will be the climax to London's first big athletics meeting for three years.

With Marion Jones, America's mould-breaking sprint star, also on the 100m bill, organisers were today touting their double act at a venue which, not so long ago, looked like being lost to British athletics for good, as being like "the king and queen of world athletics waking sleeping beauty".

Gebrselassie, though, could provide the real kiss of life as he attempts to erase Kenyan Daniel Komen's 3,000m mark of 7min 20.67sec, one of the toughest in the book, and become the first to break a track record at the Palace since Romania's Maricica Puica set a 2,000m mark there 13 years ago.

His first outdoor appearance on a British track in the six years since he became Ethiopia's idol is expected to draw a huge following from his London-based compatriots and will provide the carnival feel so lacking at domestic meetings in recent years.

When Gebrselassie broke the 5,000m world indoor record in Birmingham in February the presence of 700 of his flag-waving fan club ensured the first-ever sell-out at the National Indoor Arena.

Such was the "crescendo of noise and colour", reckoned Alan Pascoe, group chairman of the meeting promoters Fast Track, that he had no doubt we were now looking at the "greatest entertainer in world athletics".

As such, he does not come cheap. Normally guaranteed $30,000-plus just for stepping on the track, British athletics, hardly flush for cash, will have had to dig deep for a two-race deal, which will also see Gebrselassie run the mile at Gateshead on 27 June.

Yet the little man has obviously found the enthusiasm of British audiences to his liking. "I was completely over-whelmed by the support in Birmingham," he said. "I had never experienced an atmosphere like it before - not even in Addis Ababa. Britain is a home from home for me now. If Crystal Palace is full and there are even more of my fan club there, who knows what could happen?"

By the time he arrives, Gebrselassie may have found his legend embellished by his starring role in a film of his life story, Endurance, which opened in America a fortnight ago. Hollywood fell for the story of the farmer's son, one of 10 children raised in a mud hut, who sprints from poverty to become the world's most lucratively rewarded athlete.

The film's producers decided only one person could convincingly imitate the bouncing, metronomic flow of his running and that was Gebrselassie himself. British audiences will get a chance to assess his performance when the film is released here in September.

Before then, we can expect the man who has completely redrawn the outer limits of distance running - even though he is only 26 and may well have his best years ahead of him - to have added some more inimitable scenes this season as he seeks to win his fourth consecutive world 10,000m title in Seville in August.

``Up to 360,000 tonnes of food aid will be needed for the seven-month period from June to December,'' said the state-run Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) in a report to donors obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.

The appeal, which follows the failure of Ethiopia's ``belg,'' or short rains, was revised upwards from April when Ethiopia requested 320,000 tonnes of food aid, including maize and grains, for 3.2 million people.

The commission said recipients of the food would include people displaced by a border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea that has reportedly killed tens of thousands since it first flared up last year.

The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said in a separate statement on Tuesday that an ``inadequate international response to the DPPC's previous appeals for food assistance has severely undermined the effectiveness of the emergency response to date.''

``We believe enough coffee is available from the origins from the coming 2000/01 crop, there is reason for the market to come down and stabilise at lower levels,'' Klaus Werner, vice president for commodities at Drie Mollen, told Reuters.

``Based on information we are getting from the supplying countries, my personal opinion is it can come down as low as 80 cents within a year, before we have the forecasts for 2000/2001,'' he added.

Weather related spikes could be seen in the short term, but prices are likely to resume their downtrend and dip below the psychological $1.00 per lb level by year end, Werner said.

Robusta prices would follow according to the arbitrage, dipping below $1,200 per tonne. The key July New York coffee futures contract ended at 121.60 cents per lb on Friday after rallying from around $1.00 over the past two weeks on fears of cold weather in Brazil

Frost and drought in Brazil pushed up arabica prices to $2.60 per lb in 1994 and panic buying due to low stocks and tightness in Latin America sent prices rocketing to over $3.00 in 1997, the highest in 20 years. In 1992, prices crashed as low as 50 cents per lb.

Some forecasters in Brazil are already floating figures of around 40 million (60 lb) bags for the 2000/01 crop compared to 34.55 million in 1998/99, due to the country's biennial cycle and new plantations due to bear fruit. Brazil has little incentive to rein back exports because the devaluation of its real currency means it can accept lower dollar denominated prices, Werner said.

``The minimum price they need in dollars for a bag of coffee is nearly half compared with five years ago,'' he said. ``The cost of producing a hectare of coffee in Brazil is about half, so that means you need less money to survive.''

The expected fall in prices should not result in sharp declines in coffee quality or problems with special origins, as was seen during the bear market in the early 1990s.

Those problems occured when prices were stuck around 60-70 cents for prolonged periods and that is not expected again, Werner said.

Origins such as Kenyan and Colombia will always be in demand. ``There's always the market for speciality coffee...what will happen is the differentials will increase as the market comes down,'' he added.

Werner saw little prospect of producers and consumers agreeing to extend the life of the International Coffee Agreement past its September 30 expiry.

There are too many divisions among producers and consumers do not see the necessity of such an pact any longer. Drie Mollen is one of the 10 biggest coffee roasters in Europe and the largest in the private label sector in the region.

Marsabit senior resident magistrate Njuguna Kimani also fined the convicts 20,000 shillings each (about 300 US dollars) or one year in imprisonment in default for being in Kenya illegally.

The 10 will also be repartriated to Ethiopia on completion of their jail terms.

The accused, brought to court under tight security, were arrested 23 May and were charged, in addition to illegal entry of Kenyan territory, of having eight AK-47 assault rifles, one carbine and one machine gun.

They also had in their possession two rocket propelled grenades, two bazookas, 43 assorted hand grenades, an unknown type of gun and 3,832 pieces of assorted ammunition.

The 10 pleaded guilty to both charges.

In mitigation, the Ethiopians pleaded for leniency and begged the court not to repatriate them to their country, saying that after a protracted war with the Ethiopian government, risked being killed once sent back.

"We beg to be given refugee status after completion of our jail term," one of them told the hushed court.

The arrest comes barely three weeks after Kenya deployed her security personel in Moyale and Marsabit bordering Ethiopia after a death and several injuries through landmines.

Lusaka - Forget the horrifying war tales you've heard coming from Ethiopia, this Horn of Africa country. Forget the sound of gunfire, explosions, images of fighter-bombers and casualties you've imagined are part of everyday Ethiopian life.

Earlier in the year a new round of fighting broke out between Ethiopia and Eritrea and tens of thousands are believed to have been killed in trench warfare along the 1,000km border.

The year-long border war continued with Ethiopian war planes bombing grazing land in western Eritrea. Though both sides have nominally accepted a peace plan drawn by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), they've interpreted it differently.

Eritrea wants a cease-fire followed by formal demarcation of the border but Ethiopia says Eritrea must withdraw troops first to show commitment to the peace plan. The two countries have disagreed 'peacefully' over their lengthy border dispute (the contested area is the Badme region, a sparsely populated patch of mountain land along the border) turned violent this year with each accusing the other of invading. Forget the worst, and imagine the other side of life in Ethiopia as seen by this author during a six-hour flight stop-over in Addis Ababa recently.

Connecting passengers to Rome and London arrived at Addis Ababa airport at 07:25 hours Zambian time. It's a bigger and busier airport than our Lusaka International Airport - naturally. The difference here is that disembarking passengers do not walk on the tarmac but immediately gain entry to the airport buildings through 'tunnels'.

On hand to receive you are smiling Ethiopian officials who direct you to join hordes of other passengers hustling to confirm their onward journeys out of this North African city. Boarding passes are prepared before passengers jet into Addis Ababa. Officials wave you into the international departure lounge and tell you in halting English that further instructions will follow. A brown teethed but pleasant airport officer later calls out to Dubai, Bangkok, and Delhi-destined passengers to proceed downstairs for breakfast.

Soon it's the turn for London and Rome weary passengers who are waved onto waiting buses (with automatic operated doors) bearing Ethiopian Airlines colours. But before you leave the airport buildings your passport is theirs for the moment before youtake a 15-minute drive to Ghion House Hotel. Outside the airport, you are greeted by well kept surroundings, beautiful flowers and clean pavements.

Blissful experience. Taxi drivers whose vehicles bear the tag 'United Taxis Association' are not a menace here, instead they wait patiently in designated slots in the airport grounds. After a 30-minute wait in the bus we set off for the hotel.

Just three minutes away a herd of cattle are grazing in a field shared by teenage soccer exploits waiting to be tapped! Further down, 10 donkeys (donkey trains as they are known by locals) laden with brown sacks emerge from the opposite lane heading to the airport. (A new airport is taking shape).

On the same road from the airport the Malawi, Namibia and Senegal embassies flip past. One cannot help but notice the cars, there are more latest models and a lone fiat 124 seems out of place.

Street vendors and fruit sellers are part of Ethiopian life, billboards are aplenty and line up the capital's three-lane roads. Buildings here and there are under construction, a sign that the city is fast growing although it's a mixture of modern and ramshackle structures. Coming from a country where most cars are right hand driven, the left drivers looked strange. In the six hours this author did not see a right hand drive car.

This is the way it's done in Addis Ababa, home of numerous Cushitic and Semitic speaking ethnic groups.

After a 15-minute drive, the Ghion Hotel built on raised ground comes to view. The grounds are simply breathtaking: green lawns, red, yellow, pink flowers. After an 'interesting' lunch before the 13:30 hours (Zambian time) flight to Europe, the three buses snake their way through the streets of Addis Ababa. I spotted one or two street kids and further on soccer enthusiasts watching a match played on a pitch right in the middle of town, turn to look at the convoy driving past slowly.

It was as if they knew the bus riders were on foreign soil. And then there it was. The Sheraton Addis Ababa, you need to see it to believe the magical sight unfolding before you.

The automatic gates open to let in the buses. It's another side of Addis Ababa. As African flags flew high on the hotel grounds (including a faded and tattered Zambian flag), the bus slowed down at the entrance where uniformed workers shouted "welcome, welcome" with a strong Arabic accent.

England's red telephone booths add to the plush and well kept hotel grounds. The drive through the Sheraton grounds come to an end unfortunately and we head back to reality.

Just a stone's throw away are tin shacks - a sprouting township right next to where the affluent rub shoulders with international visitors. This five-star hotel is ultramodern and boasts of high-tech telecommunications and conference facilities.

Soon it was time to head back for the airport. Scanning the horizon on arrival one cannot help noticing the bare land that was once forestland.

"Great areas of trees have gone. Ethiopia is no longer as green as it used to be," says Selamta, the Ethiopian Airlines in-flight magazine.

The facts concerning the state of Ethiopia's environment today are alarming. Trees used to cover 40 per cent of Ethiopia's landmass at the turn of the century.

Now it is reported to be a mere 2.35 per cent! Thirty-eight trees are cut down every minute. "Unless something is done - and quickly - our children might not be able to frolic through the forests, breathing in the fresh breeze we did with our parents," the magazine says.

In the near future eight out of 10 Ethiopians, those living in the countryside, might not be able to eat and sell crops and vegetables grown in their plots of land. Five hours later we were flying over Rome, the picturesque landscape was spell binding.

After an hour's stop over in Rome we sighed with relief that soon the long and tedious journey was coming to an end. And London by night was equally breathtaking, an amazing and refreshing experience. People this side of the equator respect ORDER! They queue in shops, bus stops, tube stations, cinemas, banks, post offices et cetera.

In case patience is not one of your virtues you'll be out of place here. On the London bus, no one talks to you. There are no ng'wang'wazis screaming in your ears and making your life hell. A bus ride is actually enjoyable and peaceful.

The difference is that people mind their own business, they look through you, there are no sweaty conductors reaching for that K500 bus fare from the passenger on the back seat. You either have a day, weekly, monthly or yearly pre-paid travel card to use on the bus and train.

So you simply get on the bus and will only produce your ticket when an inspector gets on your bus. With over 10 million tickets checked every year, it's easy to get caught! If you misuse your pass, travel card or ticket on London Transport Buses you risk possible prosecution and a fine of upto to Pounds1, 000 .

An on-the-spot penalty of Pounds5 is payable if you fail to show on demand a valid ticket or permit for the whole of your journey on the bus. Commuters are now being advised to report all suspect or unattached packages to police and not to ignore or touch such parcels. On the tube (underground train) one in three people are reading a book, magazine, newspaper or document of some sort.

Here, you don't even wish to own a car because public transport is an ideal way of getting round the city of London. Motorists on the other hand have nightmarish experiences in getting parking space, which does not come free at all.

Soon it will be time to head back home and catch a glimpse of the highlands of Ethiopia and its rich history. Definitely an interesting place to explore.