From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
The prime minister of Yemen, Abdul Karim al-Iriyani and the Foreign Minister of Eritrea, Haile Tensae, are in London for a meeting of the international committee arbitrating on Yemen's dispute with Eritrea.
The two countries both claim sovereignty over the Hanish islands in the Red Sea. The dispute led to violent clashes in December l995, when Eritrean soldiers took over the island of Greater Hanish.
5 July 1998
Web posted at: 19:34 SAT, Johannesburg time (17:34 GMT)
SANAA, July 5 (Reuters) - Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Karim al-Iryani flew to London on Sunday to oversee final deliberations at an arbitration hearing on disputed Red Sea islands with Eritrea, an official said. The official said a number of other senior officials accompanied the prime minister to attend the hearing on the fate of Hanish, an archipelago of small, arid islands located near busy oil shipping routes.
Yemeni officials said last November that a final ruling on the dispute was expected in July. Both Yemen and Eritrea claim sovereignty over the islands. The dispute led to clashes in December 1995 in which at least 12 people died. The five-judge arbitration panel has final say on the ownership of the islands.