* Ethiopia, Eritrea at loggerheads over border
* S. Sudan says has close ties to both countries
* Talks could start as early as November
ADDIS ABABA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Newly independent South
Sudan plans to help resolve the long-running border dispute
between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a senior official said on
Wednesday.
South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, Deng Alor, said
Addis Ababa and Asmara had given the green light for mediation
talks on the border, which could start as early as November.
"We have close ties with both countries so we are planning
to mediate and solve the problems that they have between them,"
Deng Alor, South Sudan's minister for cabinet affairs, told
Reuters.
Ethiopian and Eritrean officials were not available to
comment. Ethiopia has said its conflict with Asmara over the
demarcation of their shared border following a 1998-2000 war
would be solved only through a negotiated settlement.
South Sudan is still embroiled in its own frontier argument
with its northern neighbour, Sudan. The two countries broke
apart last year under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of
civil war.
Alor said South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and other
senior officials were set to name a delegation "very soon" that
would travel to both capitals.
"We will embark on rounds of shuttle diplomacy between the
two countries. We are hoping to start in November," Alor said.
A Hague-based boundary commission awarded the flashpoint
frontier village of Badme to Eritrea in 2002. But Ethiopia has
yet to conform with the ruling, insisting on further
negotiations on its implementation.
Asmara wants Ethiopia to pull its troops out before
normalising relations.
The two countries nearly returned to war in March when Addis
Ababa launched cross-border attacks in Eritrea on what it said
were rebel targets.
Both countries routinely accuse each other of backing
dissidents to destabilise and topple the other's government.
Ethiopian strongman Meles Zenawi died in August.
(Editing by Richard Lough and Robert Woodward)