Kofi Annan tells Eritrea to remove troops

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Eritrea to remove its troops from the buffer zone on the Ethiopian border.

Annan said that the Eritrean forces included 1,500 soldiers and 14 tanks. A spokesman described Eritrea's action as a major breach of its cease-fire agreement with Ethiopia and said Eritrea had also taken over one of the checkpoints from U.N. security forces.

The Eritrean government denied any incursion. It claimed that the men who had moved into the temporary security zone were there for the harvest and said they go there every year.