The UN Security Council today considered a plan to disband its peacekeeping mission to the volatile border between Eritrea and Ethiopia after Eritrea forced most of its troops to go home.
The 1,700-strong force could be replaced by a small military observer mission on the Ethiopian side of the border, under one proposal before the council in a draft resolution submitted by Belgium.
The council took no immediate decision and instructed experts to assess the options, diplomats said.
The United Nations withdrew its peacekeeping force, known as UNMEE, from the border in February after Eritrea cut off fuel supplies. The force had been in place since 2000 after a two-year war between the Horn of Africa neighbours that killed some 70,000 people.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned in April that the withdrawal of UNMEE could spark renewed conflict on the 1,000km (620-mile) frontier.
The Belgian draft would end UNMEE's mandate, which comes up for a regular renewal on July 31st.
In a letter to the Security Council, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Addis Ababa was open to a UN presence on its territory provided it did not mean continuation of UNMEE "under a new arrangement."
But Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said the only answer was for Ethiopia to withdraw from "sovereign Eritrean territory" and that the United Nations could not legitimise Ethiopian "occupation" by its presence.