By Jack Kimball ASMARA, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Eritrea accused arch-foe Ethiopia on Sunday of fabricating identity cards to support claims that Eritrea sent troops to back the Islamist movement in Somalia. Ethiopia says hundreds of Eritreans have been killed during nearly two weeks of war between the Somalia Islamic Courts Council and Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks, soldiers and jet fighters. Asmara denies the Ethiopian accusations. "The forces of invasion in Somalia through the mercenary agent (Ethiopia) ... are resorting to the futile ploy of seizing and duplicating the ID cards of Eritreans residing in Ethiopia and sending such cards to Somalia with a view to backing up their baseless claims," Eritrea said in a statement. A recent U.N. report said Eritrea had more than 2,000 soldiers inside Somalia and Washington has accused Asmara of using the anarchic Horn of Africa country to fight a proxy war against Addis Ababa in Somalia. Last week, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces were hunting Eritreans who were "hiding behind the skirts of Somali women" after Islamist fighters fled the battlefield. Asmara says the United Nations is in cahoots with the United States to destabilise the region. The rapid advance of the joint Ethiopian-government force in Somalia has largely laid to rest analysts' fears fighting there could grow into a regional war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The two nations fought a 1998-2000 border war that killed 70,000 people and tensions between them remain high. Last week, outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he wanted to reduce the number of U.N. peacekeepers policing their frontier due to "humiliating" restrictions placed on the U.N. force by Asmara and Addis Ababa's unwillingness to accept the ruling of a border commission. In October, Eritrea sent tanks and more than 2,000 soldiers into the disputed area in what the U.N. condemned as a "major breach" of a 2000 peace deal that ended the war.
