Eritrea doesn't want UN troops on border-envoy

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (Reuters) - Eritrea's U.N. envoy said on Thursday he saw no need for U.N. peacekeepers to remain on its border with Ethiopia, despite U.N. fears that a total withdrawal could spark a new war in the Horn of Africa.

"We don't need UNMEE anymore," Eritrean Ambassador Araya Desta told Reuters in a telephone interview. He was referring to the U.N. mission on the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

"The UNMEE issue is a dead issue," he said.

Responding to fears of a repeat of the two countries' 1998-2000 war, Desta said Eritrea was not planning to attack Ethiopia. But he warned Addis Ababa that his country was prepared to fend off any invasions into Eritrean territory.

"If the Ethiopians invade us, we'll be forced to defend ourselves," Desta said.

UNMEE has already withdrawn nearly 1,700 troops and military observers who for the past seven years had been trying to prevent another war between the Horn of Africa neighbors.

Some 164 peacekeepers are left in Eritrea to guard equipment, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a new report circulated to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

The 1,700 peacekeepers had been stationed in a 15.5-mile (25-km) buffer zone inside Eritrea. But Asmara turned against UNMEE because of U.N. inability to enforce rulings by an independent commission awarding chunks of Ethiopian-held territory, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.

UNMEE pulled most of its troops out of Eritrea after the government cut off access to fuel and restricted deliveries of food and other essential supplies. Asmara denies this and accuses UNMEE of enabling Ethiopia to occupy its territory. that a total withdrawal of UNMEE could lead to a new war.

Most UNMEE troops have been sent home temporarily, Ban said in the report, obtained by Reuters.

There are also still a few peacekeepers on the Ethiopian side of the border, though Addis Ababa had indicated that it does not want to be alone in hosting U.N. troops.

Ban's report said Eritrea was refusing to discuss the issue of the future status of UNMEE and accused Asmara of a "military occupation" of the official buffer zone between the countries established under the cease-fire agreement.

Desta said his government had not prepared an official response to the report but he vehemently denied that Eritrean forces had illegally seized the territory, which he said was land that belonged to Eritrea. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)