ADDIS ABABA (News Agencies) - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice met here with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to discuss his country's peace accord with Eritrea, diplomats said Sunday.
Meeting in Ethiopia with Meles late Saturday after arriving from talks in Eritrea, Rice discussed the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and the setting up of a buffer zone between the two countries, still a thorny issue in the conflict.
Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a "complete and definitive" peace accord on December 12th to end two years of fighting over their disputed common border.
Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed in the war, and about 1.3 million people were displaced, according to U.N. estimates.
Rice was also to meet Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin on Sunday before flying home, diplomats said.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council was to vote on a resolution lifting an arms embargo against Ethiopia and Eritrea, in place since May last year after fighting resumed in the sporadic border war.
In another development, 1,544 Ethiopian civilians who had been interned in Eritrea were repatriated Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
Last month the ICRC repatriated more than 1,400 Ethiopian civilians.
