In perfect formation, and drilled in the Spartan manner that characterises the Eritrean army, they made their way forwards -- weapons locked and loaded, grenades at hand.

Dressed in a combination of desert brown fatigues mixed with a touch of green that blended in with the arid surroundings, they made their way towards the cover that provided a perfect site to possibly even relax a bit before laying an ambush for the Ethiopians.

But the enemy had beaten them to it and the Eritreans were mown down in their ranks -- in perfect formation.

Late on Saturday eight men lay stiff in the hot sun -- an even distance apart and just metres (yards) short of the cover they thought would save their lives but ended up being their killing ground.

This was the scene at a clearing near Ma'Loba on the main road running from Humera, a border town in northern Ethiopia, to Tesseney, deep in western Eritrea.

To the right and on the plains below lay more than three dozen of their comrades, testimony to the fierce clash that Ethiopian officers said began in the early hours of Saturday.

One had his whole spine blown away. Many others appeared to have died of bullet or grenade wounds.

Eritrean prisoners of war and Ethiopian soldiers who took part in the combat said there was close-quarter fighting in a clash that also involved Ethiopian helicopters, artillery and tanks from both sides.

"It was very heavy," Ethiopian Colonel Atakiti Berhe told reporters as a strong stench from the decomposing bodies swept across the plains.

As has become the norm in this war, Colonel Atakiti did not give his side's casualties.

But military analysts say over 120,000 soldiers from both sides have been killed since a border dispute two years ago erupted into a full scale war.

NO SMART BOMBS

It is trench warfare and hand-to-hand combat. Artillery gunners feeling their range by trial and error, shrapnel shredding the little vegetation that grows in the region as randomly as it scythes through the flesh and bone of the combatants.

One of ten Eritreans captured during Saturday's fighting told reporters his unit had been caught entirely by surprise.

"It was very confusing," said Arefeayne Amha, speaking through an Ethiopian interpreter. "The fighting was very, very heavy".

Colonel Atakiti said the Eritreans attacked his men about 20 km (12 miles) from the border as they were pulling out in line with orders by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

In the resultant fighting, Colonel Atakiti said he had turned back and thrust the Eritreans past the town of Guluj, some 40 km (22 miles) away, in a day-long battle.

Ethiopian soldiers took much of western Eritrea in a lightening strike about a month ago when they launched an offensive to recapture land their government says has been under Eritrean occupation for the past two years.

On Saturday thousands of Ethiopia soldiers with tanks and artillery pieces swarmed the area and hundreds more soldiers on foot trekked towards western Eritrea.

A statement from the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday said an attack on the eastern Assab front by three Ethiopian divisions had been "totally foiled" after 48 hours of intense fighting.

Eritrean presidential adviser Yemane Gebremeskel told Reuters that Ethiopian casualties were very high.

"We have not counted them yet but the Ethiopian army suffered extremely heavy losses," Yemane said.

Yemane said Eritrean forces also made a small advance at the central Senafe front, recapturing a strategic hill above the small town, but said he had no information about the situation on the western front.

In Ethiopia, a government spokesman said on Sunday Ethiopia had captured hundreds of Eritrean prisoners-of-war, including a colonel, in a fierce clash on the western front on Saturday.

The latest fighting comes after 11 days of peace talks under the mediation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) ended in the Algerian capital Algiers on Saturday.

Mediators said both sides had agreed to an OAU plan in principle and Eritrea also in public, but Ethiopia asked to consult with government officials in Addis Ababa before announcing its formal acceptance.

Algerian Justice Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said on Saturday that he hoped a ceasefire deal would be signed in Algiers by next weekend.

The deal calls for both sides to withdraw to positions held before hostilities began two years ago and for a United Nations force to be deployed in a 20 km buffer zone until international arbitrators demarcate their 1,000 km (600 mile) border.

Eritrea said on Saturday that Ethiopia's failure to accept the new plan immediately amounted to a rejection of the proposal and accused its larger southern neighbour of mounting a "war of invasion".

Over 120,000 soldiers from both sides have been killed in fighting between the Horn of Africa neighbours since the dispute over border territory first erupted in May 1988.

Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia until 1991 following the overthrow of former Marxist military dictator Haile Mengistu Mariam. It gained independence following a referendum in 1993.