He said Eritrean troop movement to West (Badme) is significant because Eritrea may try to wrest Badme from Ethiopian hands based on an independent border commission ruling which awarded Badme to Asmara to which Ethiopia has reacted as "null and void."

Adds Reuters: "Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki and his foreign minister are out of the country lobbying the international community for support." The UN news network, IRIN, also quoted UNMEE spokeswoman Gail Bindley Taylor Sainte as saying: "“Normally we say it is calm. We don’t think it is calm at the moment." Eritrean acting Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed also told IRIN: "...Now the border ruling had been delivered, there was no longer any Temporary Security Zone (TSZ)."

No official comment has come from the Government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in Addis Ababa.