The UN Security Council on Wednesday threatened to impose sanctions against Eritrea and Ethiopia if they refuse to retreat from hostile postures along their disputed border.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-nation council demanded that Eritrea, without delay or preconditions, reverse its Oct. 4 decision to ban helicopter flights of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) along with any other restrictions on their mandated operations.

It called on Ethiopia to accept an independent boundary commission's final and binding decisions concerning the demarcation of the border between the two countries.

The council also demanded both countries, which had fought a bitter border war from 1998 to 2000, show maximum restraint, refrain from threats or the use of force and return to their December 2004 levels of troop deployment within 30 days.

In the matter of the flight ban and the redeployments, the council expressed its determination to consider measures for non- compliance under Article 41 of the UN Charter, which can include sanctions.

Both the Security Council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan have previously called on Eritrea to lift the ban, which has forced UNMEE to evacuate 18 of its posts in the temporary security zone between the two countries.

Annan has warned that the tense situation along the Ethiopian- Eritrean border could lead to another round of "devastating hostilities" and urged the council to address the underlying causes of the stalemate in the peace process between the two Horn of African countries.

The peace process has been stalled for a long time as a result of Ethiopia's refusal to accept rulings given by the boundary commission, established under the 2000 Algiers peace agreement.

Source: Xinhua