Hadush, 27, who lives in the south, was not the only one among the crowd of tens of thousands of Ethiopians on the streets here Tuesday who drew parallels between that victory and the nation's more recent one: Last weekend, Ethiopia expelled the Eritrean army from the Badme region, which it had been fighting for, with words and bullets, for nearly a year.

"This is a modern war, with sophisticated weapons, machine guns," he said. "That was a primitive one. But it's the same thing: a war of aggression."

By a quirk of timing, the anniversary of that older battle -- now a national holiday -- fell just days after the defeat of Eritrea in Badme, a border area that both nations claim as their own. And so Tuesday became a day of double celebration here.

But three days after Eritrea said it was willing to accept a cease-fire, Ethiopia still had not said whether it will end hostilities in the war, whose latest round was fought for only three weeks. The fighting apparently cost thousands of lives, but the actual totals are not known.

On Tuesday, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of having no interest in peace.

"They seem to have a shifting agenda and it's becoming clearer and clearer this is not a border dispute at all," said Yemane Ghebremeskel, an aide to Eritrea's president. "They have territorial ambitions."

An Eritrean government statement on Tuesday accused Ethiopia of wanting to overthrow the Eritrean government and President Isaias Afwerki. Eritrean officials worry that Ethiopia, landlocked since Eritrea seceded and became an independent nation in 1993, might want to take the port at Assab, or even to re-annex Eritrea.

Ethiopian officials could not be reached on Tuesday because of the holiday, but they have consistently denied that they want any of Eritrea's territory.

A growing number of officials from other nations, however, are speculating that Ethiopia in fact intends to keep fighting, and may be trying to push Eritrea as far back as possible from the disputed area. Or Ethiopia may be shifting focus to two other border areas where it contends that Eritrean troops occupy Ethiopian land, the officials said.

Ethiopia and Eritrea, two former friends on the Horn of Africa, went to war briefly last spring over a rocky triangle of land along their 600-mile border, which was never officially demarcated after Eritrea's peaceful passage to independence. Fighting resumed Feb. 6, after each nation spent eight months firming up its positions and buying hundreds of millions of dollars in modern armaments.

"The thinking among some is that they are going to consolidate their gains," one Western diplomat here said of the Ethiopians, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The diplomat said outside mediators were trying to send a message: "Don't inflict injury. Don't inflict a lesson. You taught them a good lesson at Badme. Give up on all the fighting."

But it seems increasingly likely there will be no quick end to the war, even though hopes were high after Eritrea was expelled from Badme last week. On Saturday, it agreed to the terms of a peace proposal, drafted by the Organization of African Unity, that Ethiopia had accepted last year.

"It ain't over till it's over," the diplomat said. "That probably sums it up."

It is not hard to find Ethiopians who believe that they should continue fighting, despite Eritrea's acceptance of the peace proposal.

"Their army has not been damaged enough," said Andreas Eshete, a 53-year-old philosopher who teaches at the law school of Addis Ababa University. "If the past is any indication, there is no telling what they will do if they continue to have the military capacity," he said of the Eritreans.

Aklilu Daniel, a 26-year-old sociologist who went to the rallies Tuesday in Meskel Square, said most people he knows believe both that Ethiopia should keep fighting and that it should work to overthrow Eritrea's government. But Ethiopia should not, he said, take any Eritrean land.

"The war would lose its mainstream cause," he said. "The cause was to defend Ethiopia's sovereignty."

Daniel reflected a feeling among some Ethiopians that Afwerki of Eritrea is responsible for the dispute.

In all, Ethiopians seem to be in jubilant mood, believing they had won the war even if the fighting has not died down yet. But still, several people said it was hard to celebrate with so many countrymen dead in a war against a nation that was once part of Ethiopia.

Eritrean President Isayas Afeworki only last week declared that his tiny country would not surrender to its giant neighbour and that it was just a matter of time before Asmara won the war sparked by Eritrea's refusal to move out of Ethiopian territory it captured last year.

At the root of the conflict lies an ill-defined border drawn up by Italians who ruled Eritrea in the first half of this century. It was in an effort to help resolve the dispute that the OAU called for the withdrawal of Eritrean troops from disputed positions, the deployment of peacekeepers and neutral delineation of the border, a proposal that had been rejected by Eritrea.

However, Eritrea now says it is ready to implement the OAU plan, after thousands of troops and civilians have perished in land and air blitzes since the battle resumed on February 5.

Eritrea, with a population of three million against Ethiopia's 50 million, appeared more of the aggressor during the war with crowds cheering every move against Ethiopia.

While one may argue that the Eritrean government had a right to fight for land it felt belonged to its people, it is important to note that over the past four years, Asmara has locked horns with Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan and now, Ethiopia, which in fact granted it independence in 1993, after 30 years of armed struggle against the monarchy and, later, the Mengistu military dictatorship.

As the dust settles, the OAU and the United Nations need to take a deep look at the causes of this conflict and help work out a permanent solution. Since Eritrea has agreed to talk to OAU mediators, we hope that Ethiopia, having regained territory, will rally for the restoration of ties.

In Paris, visiting Ethiopian parliamentary speaker Dawit Yohannes denied the napalm charge, saying Ethiopia did not use any substances banned under international conventions.

But he declared: "We are not interested by a ceasefire at this stage." He told a press conference that Eritrea was claiming to be withdrawing its forces from the disputed border "in order to launch another attack."

The Eritrean News Agency reported that Ethiopian fighter-bombers dropped napalm on the village of Shambiko, on the western front, killing one person, injuring another, and burning 150 houses.

A staff member of the agency told AFP the attack took place on Sunday.

But an independent Eritrean cameraman who filmed the devastation -- from a considerable distance -- told journalists the attack took place on Saturday.

He said he could see the village was on fire, but was unable to confirm that napalm had been used.

The cameraman said the nearby village of Tokombia also came under air attack, with one person killed, and that altogether some 20 villages in the region came under Ethiopian air or artillery attack.

Shambiko is some 10 or 15 kilometres (six to nine miles) northwest of the hamlet of Badme, the focal point of the border war.

Badme was the scene of six days of artillery and infantry engagements which left thousands dead, according to both sides, and which resulted in an Ethiopian victory on Sunday.

Eritrean troops occupied the Badme region in May last year, sparking the war, and it became for Ethiopia a symbol of Eritrean aggression.

A peace plan put forward by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) last November demanded a retreat of Eritrean forces from the zone ahead of the deployment of peacekeepers and neutral delineation of the border.

Ethiopia accepted the plan, but Eritrea baulked at withdrawing its forces.

At the weekend, however, Addis Ababa announced "total victory" there. Asmara acknowledged its troops had retreated, and Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki sent a letter to the UN Security Council announcing his acceptance of the peace plan.

Officials in Asmara said they had no reports of fighting Tuesday or Wednesday, but added that they suspected the Ethiopians were regrouping.

The lull "does not indicate the fighting has stopped," Eritrean presidential chief of staff Yemane Ghebremeskel told AFP.

"They (the Ethiopians) may just be reinforcing their lines. The tone in Addis Ababa is becoming more and more belligerent, with the (Ethiopian) radio saying they will advance on the other fronts as well."

The first step in the OAU plan is a ceasefire, and a delegation of senior OAU officials left Addis Ababa Tuesday evening for Asmara after talks with the Ethiopian government.

But the delegation missed a connecting flight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Officials in Eritrea said they expected the OAU team to arrive sometime Wednesday.

In Addis Ababa, informed sources told AFP the Ethiopian government was demanding assurances that Eritrean troops would withdraw from disputed areas of the central front of the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border, notably the zones of Zala Anbessa, Alitena, Aiga and Indalgeda.

Those areas were all under Ethiopian administration until Eritrean armoured columns rolled in last May, displacing thousands of civilians.

Sources in Asmara said they were convinced the Ethiopians would attack there shortly if the Eritreans did not withdraw.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) delegation left Addis Ababa Tuesday night for Asmara, the Eritrean capital, but missed a connecting fight in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, they said.

The team is now trying to work out the fastest way to reach Asmara, they said.

Ethiopia accepted the OAU's peace plan when it was presented in November, and Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki accepted it Saturday in a letter to the UN Security Council.

He had previously baulked at a provision that Eritrean troops withdraw from the disputed Badme area, on the western front, ahead of the deployment of peacekeepers and neutral demarcation of the ill-defined 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border.

But Ethiopian troops drove the Eritrean soldiers out of the zone in six days of fierce fighting which ended on Sunday. Addis Ababa announced "total victory" there, and Asmara acknowledged its troops had retreated and established new defence lines.

The next step in the OAU peace plan is a ceasefire, but an Ethiopian government official told a crowd in Addis Ababa Tuesday that Ethiopia would continue to fight on in "self-defence," the Ethiopian News Agency reported.

The official, Ali Abdo, was addressing a throng of nearly a million people assembled in Addis Ababa's Meskal square to celebrate the 103rd anniversary of the historic victory of Emperor Menelik II against Italian forces at Adwa 103 years ago, as well as the recapture of Badme in the current border war.

"In the face of that humiliating defeat (at Badme), the regime in Asmara is trying to hoodwink the international community by claiming that it has accepted the OAU Framework Agreement for peace which it scoffed at for months," Abdo said.

The Ethiopians said they were "mopping up" on Monday, but no fighting was reported on the front lines on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Eritrean presidential chief of staff Yemane Ghebremeskel told AFP at 11:30 a.m. (0830 GMT) that at the last report, at 9:00 a.m., the front lines were still quiet.

"But that does not indicate the fighting has stopped," he said. "They (the Ethiopians) may just be reinforcing their lines. The tone in Addis Ababa is becoming more and more belligerent, with the (Ethiopian) radio saying they will advance on the other fronts as well."