UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Ethiopia and Eritrea on Wednesday to cooperate when an independent commission convenes later this month to discuss the disputed border between the two countries.

"Eritrea and Ethiopia should seize this unique opportunity and extend the necessary cooperation to the Boundary Commission," Annan said in a report to the Security Council.

He recommended extending the UN peacekeeping mission (UNMEE), deployed to keep the truce between the two countries, for two or three months, "in order for the forthcoming meeting of the Boundary Commission to bear fruit."

He added that the options for the UNMEE's future, proposed in his previous report and ranging from redeployment to total withdrawal, will be kept under review.

Tension mounted along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border after Ethiopia refused to accept the Boundary Commission's binding decision as required by a peace accord signed in 2000 to end a two- year border conflict between the two countries.

In October last year, Eritrea banned helicopter flights by UNMEE and demanded the departure of American and European peacekeepers with the UN mission.

Source: Xinhua