The United States will send a mission to Eritrea and Ethiopia to help break an impasse in demarcating the border between the two Horn of African countries, US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said on Monday.

Bolton told reporters that he had informed the Security Council of the mediation plan and the council agreed not to change the status quo of the UN peacekeeping mission on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border for 30 days.

"In order to give some space for this diplomatic initiative and in order not to send any signal politically and otherwise which might complicate (the situation), I asked that we freeze the status quo for 30 days," he said.

The team, to be headed by US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, would try to help Eritrea and Ethiopia to reach agreement on "how to begin implementation of the demarcation process," he noted.

Bolton spoke to the press after the Security Council concluded a closed consultation on options for the future of the UN peacekeeping mission in Eritrea and Ethiopia (UNMEE).

The Eritrean-Ethiopian border has been tense since October when Eritrea started to impose a series of restrictions on the UNMEE's movement. Last month, Eritrea expelled all peacekeepers from Western countries, in spite of appeals from the Security Council to rescind the expulsion decision.

Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war between 1998 and 2000,which left tens of thousands of people dead. The war ended after the two countries signed a peace deal in December 2000, under which they promised to accept rulings to be given by an independent boundary commission on the demarcation of their disputed border.

But Ethiopia later refused to accept the commission's decisions made in April 2002, leaving the demarcation process in a standstill.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2006)