ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Saturday he was ready to hold direct talks with Eritrean President Isiayas Afwerki over border dispute, the first ever offer of face-to-face talks with Isayas from Meles since the deadlock over the border began.
"I have no problem of talking to anybody, so long as it serves the purpose of peace, democracy and development in Ethiopia," Meles told journalists.
"We are prepared to talk to anybody ... We are not selective about who to meet or how," he said.
Ethiopia has said in the past it wants to hold talks with Eritrea over the boundary dispute, but this is the first time Meles has offered to hold face-to-face talks with Isayas since the deadlock over the border began.
Earlier this month, Eritrea banned air patrols along the 1,000-km temporary security zone and it did not give any reasons for the restrictions, according to Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte, spokeswoman of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).
Meles said Eritrea's restrictions on UN flights violated a ceasefire agreement signed by the two countries in 2000 and urged the UN Security Council to enforce it.
"We are still hopeful that the other side (Eritrea) will not miscalculate," he added.
Under a 2000 peace deal ending their two-year border war, Ethiopia and Eritrea agreed to accept the conclusions of an independent boundary commission on where the border should lie.
The commission issued its findings in April 2002 and Eritrea fully accepted them. But the process of marking out the new boundary on the ground broke down after Ethiopia objected that the flashpoint western town of Badme had been awarded to Eritrea.
The border war, which killed more than 70,000 people, began when Ethiopia accused Eritrea of invading Badme.
In support of the stalled peace process, the UNMEE, which now numbers about 3,000 troops and observers, has been patrolling a buffer zone separating the two countries' militaries since July 2000. Enditem | 
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