Eritrea dismisses new border violence accusation

By Jeremy Clarke

ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea said on Thursday it would not be drawn into another war of words after neighbouring Djibouti became the latest nation to accuse the Red Sea state of supporting rebels and spreading chaos in the region.

Djibouti said last week Eritrea was arming and training militias to carry out sabotage on its territory and was backing Somali rebels with suspected ties to al Qaeda.

Eritrea has repeatedly denied the accusations.

"We do not wish to be involved in this childish public acrimony," Eritrea's Information Minister Ali Abdu told Reuters in the capital Asmara. "We are not ready to be engaged in infantile (arguments with Djibouti)."

Relations between the two nations -- overlooking a vital shipping lane linking Europe to Asia -- remain hostile.

The neighbours clashed in June last year and a dozen Djiboutian soldiers were killed after Djibouti accused Eritrea of moving troops across its border, something Asmara denies.

Djibouti, a former French colony which separates Eritrea from Somalia, hosts France's largest military base in Africa and a major U.S. base. Its port is used by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes off the coast of Somalia to fight piracy.

The tiny nation is also the main route to the sea for Ethiopia -- Eritrea's arch enemy and Washington's chief regional ally -- since it lost the ports of Assab and Masawa when Eritrea won its independence in the early 1990s.