Ethiopian PM says he is building army to defend against potential Eritrean attack

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: Ethiopia's prime minister said Thursday he is building up the army's capabilities because he fears an imminent attack by Eritrea, which he also accused of arming Ethiopian rebels. Eritrea issued a strong denial.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in a routine address to parliament, said the Eritrean government was not cooperating in efforts to end the border dispute between the two countries and that the Ethiopian army needed to be prepared for an attack.

"It is deemed necessary to make the necessary military preparations for deterring a possible Eritrean invasion and to repulse such an invasion should it occur," Meles said. "We have now come to the point where neither Eritrea or others could ignore that at present our defense forces have the capacity to deter aggression and to repulse it if it occurred and that this is being strengthened by the day."

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war. Following a 1998-2000 border war that left tens of thousands dead, the neighbors initially promised to accept the U.N. boundary commission's 2002 ruling awarding the town of Badme to Eritrea, but Ethiopia has not handed it over.

Meles reiterated his government's position that the commission's findings were wrong, but insisted his government was ready to accept them.

"We believe the ruling was wrong, we still believe it is wrong, but we accept the ruling even though it is wrong," he told lawmakers.

The Eritrean information minister, Ali Abdu, denied his government was planning to attack Ethiopia.

"It is totally fabricated and political posturing with the intention of diverting the attention of the Ethiopian people," he said. "Instead of pointing fingers at Eritrea, it is better for (Meles) to accept the reality of the Ethiopian opposition. It is Meles who is destabilizing and disintegrating the unity of Ethiopia."

Abdu called Ethiopia's acceptance of the border ruling a "semantic game.

"They refused five years ago and now they say they accepted with precondition of negotiating during the implementation," he added.

An Ethiopia-based spokesman for the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea declined to comment on Thursday's address.

Meles also said that Eritrea may try to disrupt or strike during Ethiopian Millennium celebrations in September. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church's calendar is seven years behind the Roman Catholic calendar.

Eritrea's "strategy is mainly based on spreading chaos in Ethiopia by organizing, arming and deploying Ethiopian opposition forces which it uses as instruments for this objective," Meles said.

The government is currently fighting two rebel forces, one in the eastern Ogaden region and the other in the southern Oromia region. The Ogaden National Liberation Front has recently carried out several attacks along the Somali and Eritrean borders.