Witnesses arriving in Khartoum from the eastern state of Kassala as saying the Eritrean troops had gathered along the length of the 300 kilometre (190 mile) border, Elsharee Elsyasi daily said. ·

They were equipped with heavy weapons rather than the light weapons usually seen carried by frontier troops, it reported. ·

Beyene Petros, chairman of the Council of Alternative Forces for Peace and Democracy in Ethiopia, called on the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to make sure the elections were clean.

``If the forthcoming election is not meant to be a one-party affair, the government must improve basic structural problems inhibiting the participation of opposition parties,'' Beyene said.

He said the Election Board, which is made up of EPRDF appointees, had to be restructured to bring in representatives from opposition parties and urged the government to repeal a law which forces any individual who stands as a candidate for an opposition party to resign from their government post.

``Such measures would help to build confidence among the opposition parties,'' he said at a panel discussion.

Beyene's group brings together several national and regional parties.

The EPRDF seized power in 1991 and then won a landslide victory in a June 1995 general election.

Control of the 547-seat lower house and the 110-seat upper house is up for grabs in the election next May. But only the 25 parties affiliated to the ruling EPRDF have so far confirmed they will take part. Some opposition groups are already alleging harrassment.

The Ethiopian Democratic Unity Party says 16 of its regional offices have been shut down by the government and the ethnic-based All Amhara Peoples Organisation (APPO) says 40 of its offices have been closed and its activities restricted.

Addressing a news conference on the last day of his visit to Ethiopia, Guelleh said that years of dialogue with Somalia's warlords had done nothing to resolve the crisis in the country, which has lacked a central government since 1991.

"Civil society means all components of Somali society: women, youth, intellectuals, business people, politicians, artists, clans should all be invited to participate and choose their leader without any pressure or imposition coming from anywhere", he said.

Asked whether the warlords would accept the new platform that the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD) was giving to the people of Somalia in its mediation efforts, Guelleh said that the warlords were "obliged to accept this" proposal.

"We are not shutting the door on them, but we are not dealing with them as warlords, we are dealing with them as Somali people who are interested in the future of their country.

"If they participate in that manner, we are not going to kick them out, but we are not going to accept them to come and impose any decision or way creating their own Somali state", Guelleh stated.

On his government's relations with France, which has a large military base in Djibouti, Goulleh was full of praise.

"The French presence in Djibouti has always been one of peace and equilibrium and it continues to be seen like that, both by the riparian countries and by the African community. We think that France is playing it's full role and that we do not have any grievances against France", he said.

On the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Goulleh said that he hoped for a resolution.

"If Eritrea redeploy their troops to their pre-conflict positions, there is a way forward to start achieving peace," he said, echoing Ethiopia's demands.

Eritrea has agreed to the latest instrument of an Organisation of African Unity peace plan – which outlines the intricate details of implementation -- but Ethiopia has not, saying it fails to meet its firm demand for a return to the "status quo ante", that is, positions held by both sides before war broke out in May 1998.

Addressing Ethiopia's House of People's Representatives on Wednesday, Goulleh accused Eritrea of having broken international laws in violating Ethiopian territory.

Both sides in the war accuse the other of provoking the conflict through territorial encroachments.

Since the conflict broke out, Djibouti has replaced Eritrea as Ethiopia's principal conduit of maritime trade via the Red Sea.