By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Ethiopia said on Friday that Eritrean military forces had opened fire on two Eritrean army deserters trying to flee across the two rivals' disputed border.
The state-run Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) quoted a senior Ethiopian military officer on the frontier as saying that one of the Eritrean soldiers was killed in the Jan. 22 incident.
"Besides opening gunfire on the Eritrean soldiers, the (Eritrean) government had aimed at the trenches of the Ethiopian defence force," ENA said in its report.
"The Ethiopian defence force has notified the U.N. Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) about such a provocative act ... while the UNMEE physically appeared and confirmed what the (Eritrean) government had done."
Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu rejected the report.
"That's a total fabrication. That's not a report, it's a publication of Ethiopia," he told Reuters by telephone.
"There was no firing. Actually, we're having a lot of Ethiopian soldiers who are deserting. If they have the proof, let them show us the proof."
Relations between the two countries are at their lowest since a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people before ending with a peace deal signed in Algiers.
Abdu said the latest allegations were meant to divert attention away from the real issue, which he said was the "virtual demarcation" of the border agreed last week by Asmara.
The two nations have been deadlocked over their 1,000-km (620-mile) frontier since a decision by an independent boundary commission in 2002 gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.
The Hague-based commission, set up as part of the Algiers peace deal, "virtually" demarcated the border late last year after the two sides failed to agree.
Addis Ababa has rejected that move as "legal nonsense".
Analysts and diplomats fear an incident along the frontier could spiral out of control and provoke a full-scale war.
Ethiopia had initially rejected the 2002 ruling. It now says it unconditionally accepts it, but wants more talks, which Eritrea dismisses. Asmara has repeatedly accused Addis Ababa of planning to invade -- an allegation that Ethiopia dismisses. (Additional reporting by Jack Kimball in Asmara; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
