Crude oil and gasoline prices jumped in late trading on sentiment that oil supplies will tighten further in coming months. Lumber prices tumbled in reaction to abundant supplies.

Coffee futures at New York's Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange climbed to their highest level in just over a month as traders reacted to the dry forecasts for Brazil.

Coffee for arrival in December rose 5.85 cents to 90.95 cents a pound.

``Dry weather over the weekend is a very big concern right now,'' one floor trader said. ``It's impossible to tell how much damage has occurred, but they're certainly talking about some type of damage.'' Except for some scattered showers early this week, Brazil's coffee areas were expected to remain dry for nearly another week.

``If significant rains do not occur in the next two or three weeks, major crop losses can be expected. At this time there is no significant rain in sight,'' private forecaster Weather Services Corp. said in a forecast issued Monday.

It said weather maps indicate dry conditions and above-normal temperatures will continue through the weekend.

Last month, Jose Braz Matiello, director of the Procafe coffee research agency attached to the Agriculture Ministry, told Reuters that the drought might already have cost farmers up to 7 million 60-kilogram bags from the next crop.

The two veterans, who emerged unscathed at the end of Eritrea's 30-year war of independence in 1991, immediately rejoined the army after a new war against Addis Ababa broke out in May 1998.

With a disarming smile, Tesfatsion Abraha said he was getting used to life with one leg.

"Before, I got around on two legs, now I'll still get around," the 35-year-old farmer added.

"Society will be good to us. People will take us in with no problem," chipped in Zoenguiel Yohannas.

Despite the amputated limbs, blindness and mental disorders of its patients, optimism and a rejection of self-pity prevails at Mai Habar Rehabilitation Camp, 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Asmara.

"I am not disabled," said the director, Tesfamariam Wedihaile, who wears a prosthesis on his left leg. "I am a person who was shot and lost my leg," he stated matter-of-factly.

Disabilities, particularly from war injuries, do not carry the same stigma in Eritrea as in many other countries.

"It's a symbol of sacrifice for our country," explained Daniel Telhen, 24, whose right leg was blown off in a landmine explosion last January.

Ablel Ande, 25, sat in the courtyard, his bandaged right hand dangling at his side. He recalled his father visiting him in the hospital soon after he was wounded by a mortar at the Tsorona front.

"Way to go!" enthused the soldier's father.

Eritrea's war of independence, during which almost every family lost at least one member, left a society with a palpable sense of indebtedness.

"When someone dies, you think: 'This person died so I could be here'," said Tesfamariam. "The same is true for disabilities. 'This person is crippled so I could be here'."

Even discussing a loved one's disability is considered rude, as if one is ungrateful the person returned alive, explained one ex-fighter.

Tesfatsion said his children were curious about his amputated leg, but never said a word.

At Mai Habar, the buzz-word is "usefulness." In a society which stresses self-sufficiency above all else, not being useful is the biggest fear.

The residents receive training in several crafts, such as wood and metal working. A short course on managing small businesses is available. Residents grow their own food on the seven-hectare (20-acre) grounds.

About 300 veterans are based at Mai Habar at any one time, although more than 17,000 have passed through. Around a fifth of current residents are casualties of the border war, most of whose wounded are treated in army hospitals.

Most of the injured veterans come for training then return to their villages, but a few, like 27-year old Yodit Yemane, have chosen to stay.

The mother of three, who was blinded 10 years ago when a bullet skimmed her eyes during a major offensive, said she could better care for her children at Mai Habar than in her village.

Money remains the biggest problem. Many have formed cooperatives and local governments often give loans to veterans.

The government's guarantee of employment for wounded veterans offers a secure future, but some reject this as charity.

Physical therapy is a part of the program, but psychological counseling is not.

"It is a matter of making a conscious decision that you are going to get back into life," explained Tesfamariam of the emotional consequences of being disabled.

While no one expresses anger at their situation, anger at Ethiopia remains. "This is not a matter of guns and bullets," said the director. "This is about arms and legs."

But among the veterans, there were no regrets. "We would all go back to the front and fight if we could," boasted one man.

More than 65,000 people were killed and an estimated 20,000 disabled during Eritrea's 30-year struggle for independence from Ethiopia.

Among the salvoes of statements emanating daily from Asmara and Addis Ababa accusing each other of belligerance, bloody-mindedness and deception was the longest communique to be released by Eritrea since the war broke out in May 1998.

This was a detailed reaction to a statement that had been posted three days earlier on the official Internet website of the Ethiopian government spokesperson (www.ethiospokes.net) in what Asmara called a "deceitful exercise."

When AFP later searched the site, it found no sign of the statement, entitled "Thoughts on the present Impasse in the negotiating process," which referred to Ethiopia's effective rejection of the latest peace proposals drawn up by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

A reliable independent source, however, told AFP that the document that so riled Eritrea had indeed appeared briefly on the website and supplied a print-out of the page in question, complete with a footer indicating it had been released by the spokesperson's office.

The same website later accused Eritrea of trying to "deceive the international community" over the document -- which it denied having been posted -- "knowing full well that the contents were made by a third party observer... Stevens P. Tucker, who is not even Ethiopian, much less a member of the Ethiopian government."

"How did the statement appear in an offical government website under its own signature with no attribution to an independent author?" Asmara responded.

"Moreover, why was it subsequently pulled from the website?"

As if to play down the furore, Tucker's article was recently published in full in the Ethiopian Herald.

It also appeared on a non-govermental website for "Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia" (ethiolist.com) under a note explaining it was the fruit of talks in Addis Ababa with government figures, diplomats and aid workers.

So who exactly is Tucker? Asmara claims he works for a relief agency with close ties to the regime in Addis Ababa.

Tucker himself said on an Eritrean website (erifirst.net) that "the piece was written as a personal reflection, and was not written for any government organization."

"I have seen no, and I repeat, no evidence that the piece was ever posted on the Goverment Spokesperson's Website. If you, or anyone else, can provide convincing evidence to the contrary, I'd be most interested to see it," he said on the site, which listed his contact details.

When contacted by telephone in Britain, Tucker told AFP that he worked in Ethiopia as a development professional. He denied working for the Ethiopian government or for the agency named by Asmara as the British arm of Relief Society of Tigray (REST-UK).

"I have no regrets. The debate is quite healthy," he said. "The response has been interesting. There has been a deliberate attempt to misread, distort and read selectively. It's quite predictable in this situation where people's nerves are raw on all sides," he added.

In a final twist to the tale, when the number listed for Tucker was rung again, the person who answered identified himself as Tucker and spoke in with a Scottish accent, whereas the first "Tucker" had a Midwestern American accent.

The voice on a third call was that of an automatic answering machine.