Ethiopia: Ethiopia to invite monitors for polls in 2005

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has averted a possible boycott of 2005 elections by opposition parties by agreeing to their demand to invite international observers, his ruling party said on Tuesday. Ethiopia banned international observers from monitoring the last vote in 2000, restricting the observer status to Ethiopian civil societies, the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) and diplomats resident in its capital Addis Ababa.