Citing significant progress toward resolving at least three major conflicts -- in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea -- as well OAU stances against non-democratic governments and terrorism, senior US officials who attended the summit said they were encouraged by what they saw.

At the same time, however, they warned that Africa remained fragile and urged the continent's leaders to continue to press for reform and an end to armed struggle.

"Obviously it's important to be cautious in a presently optimistic reading of the developments," said Gayle Smith, the senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council.

But "we also want to be very clear that it remains our view that there really is a change afoot in Africa and it remains a critical moment for our engagement," she said.

Top on the US list for engagement with Africa is passage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act which Congress is expected to take up in the coming days and is aimed at improving trade and investment ties between US and African companies.

In addition, the United States is also championing debt relief which would reduce up to 70 percent of debt owed by the so-called Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, most of which are in Africa.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice said such efforts were appropriate measures to assist the continent's 53 countries.

She lauded an OAU resolution against seizing power by force under which member states with bully regimes were given 12 months to establish constitutional rule -- or not be invited to the next summit.

"That has not been an explicit element of OAU summits present and past and it would be a substantial development in the future," Rice said, adding that the group had also passed its first counter-terrorism resolution.

The 44 heads of state and government -- a record turnout for the pan-African body -- also reached a consensus on the urgent need to stamp out the many conflicts raging on the continent.

Rice said recent developments in Sierra Leone, the DR Congo and Ethiopia and Eritrea were cause for hope, but cautioned that the Sierra Leone agreement must still be implemented, noted the Congo pact had yet to be signed by all parties, and that developments in the Horn of Africa were still very recent.

Smith agreed, adding Washington was seeing progress in all three conflicts and was impressed that home-grown peace efforts were coming to the fore.

Following is the text of the statement released July 15 by James P. Rubin, State Department spokesman:

(begin text)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
For Immediate Release
July 15, 1999
Statement By James P. Rubin, Spokesman
Progress In Ethiopia/Eritrea Peace Process

The United States Government welcomes the initial positive responses by Eritrea and Ethiopia to the modalities put forward by the Organization of African Unity for implementing the OAU's Framework Agreement. We hope this proves to be an important step towards a resolution of this devastating conflict.

We commend the OAU for its persistence in identifying an equitable formula acceptable to the two parties. The United States has actively worked for a peaceful resolution of this dispute over the past year.

In recent days, we have worked closely with the Organization of African Unity, the United Nations, the European Union, and a number of African nations, including the parties themselves, in support of this important OAU initiative, and we are continuing to do so.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, returning to Addis Ababa from Algiers, where the 35th OAU summit came to an end on Wednesday, told AFP that his government considered that OAU proposals to end the border war with Eritrea were "a completely principled and completely correct package".

When asked overnight Wednesday if there had been any major breakthrough in the 14-month-old conflict, Meles said "Not as far as I know," but added: "We have made this very clear to them (mediating bodies), that we looked to these peace proposals in a positive manner."

A war between Ethiopia and its former province on the Red Sea broke out on May 6 last year over territory on their ill-defined border and has since claimed tens of thousands of lives in heavy artillery and infantry battles, interspersed with long lulls marked by sporadic clashes.

The battlefronts are currently relatively calm, with the rainy season preventing any serious offensives.

The OAU has tried to bring the two sides together over peace proposals, which they have accepted in principle, but progress was stalled because of differences of interpretation – particularly over troop withdrawals.

Meles told AFP that the Eritrean side had "gutted out the substance of the package, added all sorts of preconditions, and then said they accepted" the OAU framework plan, which calls for a ceasefire, troop withdrawals and the sending of observers under OAU and United Nations supervision pending a delineation of the boundaries.

"We want to see the details of the implementation (proposals), the time scales" in the plan, Meles said. "We have to see if Eritreans are going to accept it without buts and ifs."

The pan-African summit this year condemned force as a means of settling conflicts on the continent and reaffirmed the OAU's long-standing principle of the intangibility of the borders inherited, as of the 1960s, from colonial times.

Eritrea, a former British-controlled territory, won internationally recognised independence from Ethiopia, which had at times in its recent history been Italian-run, in May 1993.

A statement from Eritrea's foreign ministry received by AFP in Nairobi said President Issaias Afeworki announced his country's acceptance of the "Modalities of Implementation" at the closing session of the OAU summit in Algiers on Wednesday.

The OAU framework plan calls for reestablishing Ethiopian government control in the disputed Badme area, demilitarizing the zone and deploying a peacekeeping force for six months.

"In this spirit, Eritrea shall redeploy its forces from positions taken after May 6, 1998, while Ethiopia will do likewise from positions taken after February 6, 1999," according to the Eritrean statement.

Eritrea captured Badme at the start of the war on May 6 last year, but Ethiopian troops reconquered it in February after a battle, in which both sides said thousands of lives were lost.

Ethiopia has been insisting that Eritrea withdraw from all other disputed territories along the border, some 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) long, before a ceasefire goes into effect, but Eritrea had rejected that demand, claiming it was not part of the OAU peace plan.

The statement said: "This redeployment shall not in any way prejudice the final status of the territories concerned, it being understood that the status will be determined at the end of the border delimitation and demarcation.

"The modalities for the reestablishment of the civilian administration and the population in the concerned territories shall be worked out after the cessation of hostilities".

In accepting the modalities of implementation, Eritrea observed that:

- "The principle of non-acquisition of territory by force applies equally to both sides and to all territories seized since the conflict started;

- "Redeployment and interim arrangements do not pre-judge the status of the territories concerned;

- "Undoing the damage done by the conflict does not only require redeploment, but more importantly, addressing the humanitarian dimensions of the conflict. In this regard, it is imperative to fully compensate the deportees, if not the irreparable harm done to them, at least for expropriated property.

(Both countries have engaged in mass reciprocal expulsions since the war erupted).

- "Demarcation will be carried out expeditiously in order to bring the dispute to a quick end".

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian President Meles Zenawi said he did not think the Eritrean acceptance of the OAU peace formula amounted to a major breakthrough.

"The substance of the package is identical to that of the past," Meles told AFP in an interview on his overnight return to the Ethiopian capital from Algiers.

"We have made this very clear to them, that we looked to these peace proposals in a positive manner.

"We want to see the details of the implementation, the time scales. Eritreans gutted out the substance of the package, added all sorts of preconditions and then said they accepted. So the Ethiopian side intervened and said no ifs, no buts.

"The OAU endorsed two documents which are the only proposals on the table, no ifs, no buts.

In a letter to Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika, who spearheaded the mediation, Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki said he accepted an OAU ``framework agreement'' for a ceasefire and a withdrawal of troops from disputed areas.

There was no word yet from Ethiopia, which diplomats said was still studying the proposals presented during an OAU summit in Algiers.

``We have accepted the framework proposal as a whole and clarified a few items we thought were ambiguous,'' Tesfa Alem Seyoum, a diplomat at Eritrea's U.N. mission said. ``This must work as this is the most balanced and fair approach that could bring us to peace,'' he added.

Among Eritrea's ``clarifications'' was a demand for compensation to Eritreans that Ethiopia had deported since the war began ``if not for the irreparable harm done to them, at least for expropriated property,'' the letter said.

But it was not immediately clear if this would be a deal-breaking demand. Isayas' letter and a copy of the proposed agreement, entitled ``Modalities for the Implementation of the OAU Framework Agreement on the Settlement of the Dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea,'' was released by Eritrea's U.N. mission.

The two former allies in the Horn of Africa went to war in May 1998. Ethiopia since then has demanded a withdrawal from land Eritrea occupied while Eritrea has argued that Ethiopia had moved into its territory before May 6.

The draft agreement said both sides would agree to a ceasefire and begin redeploying their troops immediately after the guns fell silent. Both countries first would have to sign a formal ceasefire agreement.

The accord, however, would not prejudice the final status of the two countries' respective frontiers, which would be demarcated afterward.

The draft proposes Eritrea first commit itself to redeploying its forces outside of the territory it occupied after May 6, 1988 . Ethiopia then would withdraw its forces from positions taken after February 7, 1999, which were not under Ethiopian administration before May 1998.

Eritrea and Ethiopia also need to accept OAU military observers, in cooperation with the United Nations, to supervise the redeployment of troops.

In its letter to Bouteflika, the Eritrean president said he wanted to make sure that the ceasefire applied equally to both sides and to all territories seized since the conflict began.

Isayas emphasised that interim arrangements called for in the accord did not prejudge the status of the territories concerned and appealed for demarcation of the border to be carried out ``expeditiously in order to bring the dispute to a quick end.''

``On the basis of (these) understandings and in the interests of peace ... Eritrea has decided to accept the 'Modalities for the Implementation of The Framework Agreement' presented to us,'' the president's letter said.

On Wednesday Ethiopia and Eritrea both said they had accepted the OAU's proposals to end the border war -- a plan launched during the African body's annual summit in Algiers.

Less than 24 hours later, both sides said they doubted the sincerity or commitment of the other and diplomats and analysts suspect genuine peace is still a long way off.

``They don't even seem able to agree on what they have agreed to,'' said one Kenyan diplomat. ``They are both likely to interpret the fine print of the plan in very different ways.

Ethiopia and Eritrea first came to blows in May last year and what started as a border dispute rapidly expanded into a bloody war of attrition fought by tens of thousands of infantry hunkered down in trenches across the frontier.

If the casualty claims made by both sides are to be believed, over 100,000 troops from both sides have been killed and many more wounded or captured.

But for Ethiopia and Eritrea to bury the hatchet may take more than just a peace plan from the OAU, diplomats said.

``It may take a generation or more before there will be genuine forgiveness and trust,'' one Western diplomat said. ``There is a lot of bitterness...it isn't just a case of signing a peace deal and going back to business as usual.''

OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim told reporters in Algiers that both sides had agreed to the new, revised framework agreement and further mediation, but admitted ``there are different interpretations.''

The deal should see armies from both sides withdraw from position held before May 6 last year.

Then, Eritrea captured a considerable swathe of territory which had been under Ethiopian administration, but Ethiopia has since retaken some positions and also captured territory which was formerly Eritrean.

It is not clear if a peacekeeping force will monitor the withdrawals, but the next step is for independent arbiters to adjudicate on which land belongs to whom.

Territory has been in dispute since 1993 when Eritrea took independence from Ethiopia following a long seccessionist struggle which ended with the overthrow of Mengistu Haile Mariam.

The Eritrean People's Liberation Front and the Tigrean People's Liberation Front formed the vanguard of the force that toppled Mengistu, but the former allies -- who are now the effective governments in the respective countries -- are now also mortal enemies.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on his return from Algiers that Eritrea must accept without preconditions the African peace plan

``We think this is a completely principled and completely correct package,'' he told reporters, but then immediately accused Eritrea of lacking commitment.

``They responded ... in typical EPLF fashion,'' he said. They gutted out the substance of the package, added all sorts of preconditions and then said they had accepted,'' he said.

In Eritrea, the government expressed concern that Ethiopia had not yet formally agreed to the peace plan after Meles said he accpted the deal but also needed to get parliamentary approval. Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki immediately accused Meles of wasting time.

``It is an excuse to avoid taking a decision that was supposed to be taken here,'' he said.

``It isn't the best start,'' said a regional diplomat of the latest exchange. ``But I suppose there is not much else to hope for.''

(Additional reporting By Alexander Last in Asmara and Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)