Yamamoto holds talks with Eritrean prez, withholds outcome��

ASMARA, Eritrea, 7 Dec. 2004 (AFP) - US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto held bilateral talks with Eritrean President Isaias Afeworki in the capital Asmara, a presidential spokesman said.

"The discussions were aimed at enhancing bilateral cooperation in all fields," President Isaias' chief of staff Yemane Gebremeskel told AFP by telephone in Asmara on Tuesday.

Asked whether the discussions included military cooperation, Yemane said: "I don't want to go into details."

After Ethiopia announced a peace proposal late last month, Yamamoto said the US position remained the same on the Eritrea-Ethiopia border issue and that he wanted a decision of Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) to be implemented.

"We leave it to the Eritreans to comment on the talks between Yamamoto and the Eritrean President, because they are the hosts," a US embassy official said in Asmara.

Since September 2003, Ethiopia had been rejecting the "final and binding" demarcation imposed by the EEBC, which was set up after the end of the 1998-2000 border war between the two countries.

Late November, Addis Ababa finally accepted in "principle" the EEBC's decision, but called for "adjustments" within the framework of a peace proposal.

The United States is one of the few members of the international community not to have commented on the Ethiopian proposal.

"Making noise doesn't help around there," the embassy official said in Asmara on Tuesday.

The European Union has said the Ethiopian proposal is "positive," but Isaias has rejected it, saying in an official statement released on Tuesday that "Eritrea will not accept any alternatives to the EEBC's decision."

Yamamoto leaves for visits to Rwanda on Tuesday evening and to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Thursday, the embassy official said, adding that he would not visit Ethiopia.

The situation between Rwanda and the DRC remains tense after the United Nations said on Tuesday that it was almost certain that Rwandan soldiers had entered the DRC in the last two weeks.