The UN Security Council on Friday urged Ethiopia and Eritrea to take measures to resolve the current impasse between the two countries.

In a press statement read out by the council president for February, Ambassador John Bolton of the United States, the council urged the two African countries to sit down with the commission charged with setting a permanent border between the two countries and to abide by its decisions.

Meanwhile, it also demanded that the two countries permit the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) to perform its duties without restrictions.

The council recalled that under the Algiers Agreements that ended fighting between the two countries, both Eritrea and Ethiopia have agreed to accept the delimitation and demarcation decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) as final and binding.

The council also urged the EEBC "to convene a meeting with the parties to prepare to resume demarcation," and strongly urged the two parties "to attend the EEBC meeting and to cooperate with and abide by the requirements specified by the EEBC, in order to successfully conclude the demarcation process."

Eritrea has banned UNMEE helicopter flights and restricted its patrols since mid-2005 and in December of that year demanded all UNMEE personnel of certain nationalities to leave its territory.

Source: Xinhua