The announcement came just days after Ethiopia claimed Eritrea had launched a new offensive.

In a vaguely worded statement released Saturday, the government said "technical arrangements" recently proposed to clarify terms for implementing a peace deal did not comply with the original agreement.

The statement said the new terms opened up possible contradiction to the original Organization of African Unity plan which called for a full withdrawal of Eritrean forces from areas controlled by Ethiopia before the start of the war on May 6, 1998.

"Ethiopia needs to be certain that its territories taken by force are restored," the statement said. "This requires the Ethiopian government to insist on the removal of all loopholes that might impede the full restoration of the status quo ante."

Ethiopia said Eritrea initiated a nine-hour battle Wednesday at Zalambessa, 255 miles north of the capital Addis Ababa. Eritrea denied any battle occurred.

On Friday, the Ethiopian army took reporters to the front but kept journalists two miles from the battle site saying the Eritreans had mined it.

Ethiopian officers pointed at eight Eritrean soldiers, seen through binoculars across the front line, who carried other soldiers, ostensibly wounded in the recent fighting.

"(The Eritreans) first attacked our positions with mortars and rocket propelled grenades," said Lt. Yohannes Wolde-Ghiorgis. "They later came out from their trenches and attempted to break through our positions."

The British pilot of the ill-fated plane, Alan Lewis, 47, and the Swedish co-pilot, Andres Rors, 48, died when the light plane belonging to Execujet aviation group of South Africa, was brought down by an anti-aircraft battery Sunday in northern Ethiopia, about 40 kms from the Eritrean border, as it flew in from Naples, Italy, en route to South Africa.

"The Ethiopian government wishes to reiterate that no permission was given to the plane to fly over the Ethio- Eritrean border which has been closed to air traffic due to the conflict for the past 16 months," a statement from the office of the government spokesperson said.

It noted that Ethiopian civil aviation authorities have been regularly calling attention to the no-fly zone over northern Ethiopia.

The last such notice was given on 20 August in reply to the request of the Learjet.

"It is true that permission was requested and granted allowing the flight to enter Ethiopian territory on the basis of its request that in fact specifically stressed that the plane would avoid flying over Eritrean airspace at all times. "Permission was therefore granted for the flight to enter Ethiopia via Djibouti and fly over south-east Ethiopia to Kenya.

"The aircraft, however, entered Ethiopian airspace from Eritrea directly south of Asmara at high speed with neither notification nor permission," the statement said in reaction to claims that the plane had permission to over-fly Ethiopia.

It added that the aircraft was shot down because it had not notified Ethiopian authorities of the change of its flight route and as such the identity of the fast-moving intruder aircraft was not known to them.

The statement expressed regret over the loss of lives, but said Ethiopia cannot be held responsible for the downing of the aircraft under such conditions and circumstances.

It hinted that the aircraft may have had "a mission" to stray into no-fly zone.

The aircraft, it said, belonged to a United States firm known as Wilmington Trust, adding that it had recently been leased by a United States company known as Corporate Jet Inc. "Media reports describe the aircraft as having regularly served the cause of Unita (Union for the Total Independence of Angola) in the 1980s," the statement said.

It further said the Ethiopian government "will continue its investigation into the mystery flight" and hopes others would contribute in getting to the bottom of the matter.

It said the government has specifically requested the United States, Switzerland, South Africa, Sweden and Britain "to share whatever information they have in order to ascertain the nature of the mission of the intruder aircraft and why it flew over areas clearly know to be forbidden territory."