UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 9 (Xinhuanet) -- The UN Security Council is taking deliberate measures to avoid any risk on the future of UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno said Monday.

    While concerned about border tensions between the two countries, the council is avoiding making hasty decisions on the future of its peacekeeping operation in the Horn of Africa countries, Gurhenno told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.

    "What was clear in the council is that there is a sense of urgency, of crisis, that this is not business as usual because obviously the status quo is unsustainable," he said after a closed Security Council meeting on the UN Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).

    "At the same time there is also a recognition that one should not rush to precipitous decisions, that everything has to be done to avoid increasing the risk on the front line between Ethiopia and Eritrea and so time has to be given for diplomacy," he added.

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his latest report to the Council, said UNMEE could buy time "for diplomatic initiatives to unblock the current dangerous stalemate" or opt for relocation, moving most of those UN staff now in Asmara, Eritrea, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Other options offered included transforming the mission into an observer or a political liaison mission, or creating a preventive force deployed south of the Temporary Security Zone currently held by Ethiopia, he mentioned, stressing "UNMEE could be withdrawn entirely."

    Guehenno said he was in constant touch with the troop contributing countries and they were aware that a decision to withdraw could have momentous consequences but at some point tough decisions would have to be made if developments did not go the way they should.

    Meanwhile, he welcomed the announcement made by the US Ambassador John Bolton that the United States would soon send a high-powered mission to the two countries. Enditem