A delegation of Organisation of African Unity (OAU) officials was due to arrive in Asmara Thursday evening for talks with Eritrean Foreign Minister Haile Woldensae -- probably on Friday, officials said -- on an OAU peace plan accepted by Ethiopia in November and by Eritrea last Saturday.

The first major step in the peace plan is a ceasefire, but in Paris on Wednesday visiting Ethiopian parliamentary speaker Dawit Yohannes declared: "We are not interested by a ceasefire at this stage."

In Asmara, presidential chief of staff Yemane Ghebremeskel told AFP shortly before 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) Thursday that he had reports of "some skirmishes" on the western Badme front, where Ethiopia declared total victory last Sunday.

Eritrea acknowledged then that its troops in the Badme region had retreated to establish new defence lines.

"I don't have the complete picture yet," Ghebremeskel said, "but it appears the skirmishes are not very serious" -- a contrast to the previous World War I and II style fighting there which left thousands dead, according to both sides.

Eritrean troops occupied Badme and regions of the central front along the 1,000-kilometre (600-mile) border in May last year, sparking the war, and Badme became to Ethiopia a symbol of Eritrean aggression.

Eritrea dates the crisis back to July 1997, when it says Ethiopian troops occupied the hamlet of Adi Murug, in the eastern Badda region.

In Addis Ababa, Thursday's Ethiopian Herald reported Negasso as saying: "The sole aim of the Ethiopian counter-offensives against Eritrea is to regain the country's invaded territories and to ensure the respect for Ethiopia's sovereignty."

No confirmed reports of fighting came in Tuesday or Wednesday, leading to speculation that both armies were regrouping on the central front, where Eritrean troops still occupy localities that were under Ethiopian administration before the war flared in May last year, reigniting on February 6 after diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis proved fruitless.

In Addis Ababa, informed sources told AFP the Ethiopian government was demanding assurances that Eritrean troops would withdraw from the zones of Zala Anbessa, Alitena, Aiga and Indalgeda.

Under the OAU peace plan, peacekeepers would be deployed along the border ahead of neutral demarcation of the ill-defined frontier.

Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia in May 1993, depriving its huge neighbour of its Red Sea ports, one of the root causes of the war, along with economic and political differences, observers say.

Negasso stressed that Ethiopia's only goal in pursuing military activity was to regain invaded territory and ensure security.

"It is not to encroach on Eritrea's territory as the Issaias government maintains," he said, referring to the government in Asmara of President Issaias Afeworki.

"If Ethiopia had cherished such a dream, it would not have in the first place fully supported the 1993 referendum which separated Eritrea from Ethiopia," he said with regard to a self-determination poll which was backed by Meles Zenawi, then Ethiopian president, now executive prime minister.

Both sides meanwhile have to keep a careful eye on rebel groups trying to profit from the war.

Ethiopia, with a huge land mass and a population of close to 60 million, compared with tiny Eritrea's 3.5 million, is much more diverse, and faces rebellions by ethnic Somalis, Oromos and an Islamic group, al-Itihad al-Islam.

Somali sources reported last month that Eritrea was arming Ethiopian rebels through Mogadishu warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid.

On Thursday, the Revolutionary Council of the Eritrean Liberation Front sent a communique to AFP's Addis Ababa bureau calling on Eritreans to oust Afeworki's government and claiming that the underground Eritrean opposition had agreed Thursday on a transitional government "to install democracy in Eritrea."

A source close to the rebel movement told AFP last month that eight Eritrean opposition movements (pro-Sudan, pro-Ethiopia and independent) had met secretly in an unidentified Horn of Africa country to set up a united front against the Asmara government.

"The sole aim of the Ethiopian counter-offensives against Eritrea is to regain the country's invaded territories and to ensure the respect for Ethiopia's sovereignty," Negasso said, according to Thursday's Ethiopian Herald.

The Horn of Africa nations went to war over contested border territory in May last year. Heavy fighting resumed early in February after a long lull. Eritrea had become independent from Ethiopia in May 1993, depriving the east African nation of its Red Sea coastline.

Late last week, Ethiopia announced a "total victory" over Eritrean forces after days of heavy fighting to recover control of the disputed Badme region, which had been seized by Asmara's troops at the outset of the conflict.

Negasso stressed that Ethiopia's only goal in pursuing military activity was to regain invaded territory and ensure security.

"It is not to encroach on Eritrea's territory as the Issaias government maintains," he said, referring to the government in Asmara of President Issaias Afeworki.

"If Ethiopia had cherished such a dream, it would not have in the first place fully supported the 1993 referendum which separated Eritrea from Ethiopia," with regard to a self-determination poll which was backed by Meles Zenawi, now the Ethiopian prime minister.

Eritrea on Wednesday accused Ethiopia of dropping napalm on the border village of Shambiko on the western front.

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

Shambiko is some 10 or 15 kilometres (six to nine miles) northwest of Badme, the focal point of the war and the scene of six days of artillery and infantry engagements which left thousands dead, according to both sides.

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.

"The (arms) shipment that was brought to the coastal town of Merca on 18 February were part of assorted weapons given by the Libyan government and not Eritrea," said a senior official in the faction of Ali Mahdi Mohamed, a former rival of Aidid.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three shiploads of heavy and small machine gun ammunition, as well as anti-aircraft weaponry, arrived in Somalia from Libya through Eritrea in mid-January.

Several armoured personnel carriers (ACPs) received by Aidid recently were also from Libya and not Eritrea, the official added.

A Mogadishu newspaper had reported that the arms were provided by Eritrea to Aidid's forces to share with the rebel Ethiopian Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). Eritrea and Ethiopia are engaged in a bloody border dispute.

Western diplomats identified the ACP types as BRDM and Ferret Scout cars.

"Members of the council expressed their concern at the continuing fighting along the borders between Ethiopia and Eritrea," council President Qin Huasun of China told reporters after closed-door consultations.

Members noted that both countries had already accepted a framework agreement proposed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), he said.

Eritrea last weekend dropped its earlier opposition to the OAU plan, previously accepted by Ethiopia, after Eritrean troops were driven out of the contested border region of Badme in an Ethiopian offensive backed by artillery and fighter planes.

"Members of the council deplored that hostilities have not been ceased and regretted that Ethiopia still continues its military action," the council statement said.

Council members renewed their demand for an immediate ceasefire by both sides so as to create conditions for implementing the OAU agreement.