The language emanating from Asmara and Addis Ababa bodes ill for a peace process enshrined in an accord signed in Algiers in December 2000, in the wake of a conflict over the border that cost the lives of at least 80,000 soldiers on each side.

Since the accord, there has been little sign of normalisation and diplomatic, trade and communication links between the Horn of Africa neighbours remain cut.

Just as the latest war -- begun seven years after Eritrea won a 30-year secession battle -- was, ostensibly at least, ignited by a border dispute, the current row also centres around exactly where those posts should be driven into the ground.

And the original flashpoint in 1998, the dusty outpost of Badme, is again the chief bone of contention.

In the ruling it delivered a year ago, which both sides agreed was final and binding, the neutral Boundary Commission set up under the Algiers accord determined that Badme was on Eritrean soil.

Ethiopia, which maintains it had long administered the village, first sought clarifictions from the commission, then adjustments, and then, when rebuffed, accused the body of making "mistakes", of violating the very accord which established it and, by extension, of jeopardising the entire peace process.

While neither side has openly abandoned the diplomatic route, the word "war" is making frequent re-appearances of late, even if only in a context of playing down that eventuality.

"There is a possibility of war, but there is a bigger possibility of peace," senior Eritrean presidential aide Yemane Gebremeskel told AFP earlier this month.

"To a large extent, war and peace in this region will be determined by what the international community does," he said.

Eritrea's ruling Popular Front for Democracy and Justice recently warned on its website that Ethiopia was "trying to disrupt the peace process and seems to be heading for war," a charge virulently denied by Addis Ababa.

"It seems we are at a critical stage," Stein Villumstad, the region's representive of Norwegian Church Aid, which is working for peace with various religious leaders, told the UN news service, IRIN, this week.

"We are once more hearing the word 'enemy' in statements. That is worrying," he added, also calling for the international community not to allow the dramatic events in the Middle East completely overshadow the Horn of Africa.

Even the ever upbeat UN peacekeeping mission here, UNMEE, which patrols a demilitarised corridor along the 1,000 kilometre (620 mile) border, admits to "hiccups" in this "very critical phase", even if it insists that both sides remain committed to the peace process.

"We are optimistic because there is a lot of support going into solving this problem and it is only a problem, and we are confident that we will get through it and have a border with which both countries can live," UNMEE Force Commander Major General Robert Gordon, a British officer, told a press conference earlier this month.

"I haven't seen signs of a war breaking out," the UN's Horn of Africa envoy Legwaila Jospeh Legwaila told journalists in Addis Ababa on April 9.

This week, a senior official in the Eritrean foreign ministery said Ethiopia was "currently recruiting and training young soldiers."

And, more than two years after the war, Eritrea itself remains highly militarised, with large numbers of the country's youth conscripted into the army.

In his press conference, Gordon said that "we have seen perfectly legitimate movement of troops ... and signs of training" but "no signs of what you would call aggressive redeployment... that could be identified as an aggressive posture."

As things stand, Ethiopia has agreed that demarcation can begin on the eastern sector of the border, but has yet to give the go-ahead for the central or western section, where Badme is located.

One Asmara-based diplomat told AFP that demarcation "was an indespensible component of peace in the region."

Eritrea's economy, he explained, "is completely paralysed. It will be in limbo until demarcation," he said.

SPACE.WIRE