The defense ministers of Sudan and South Sudan on Monday cut short talks on demilitarizing the tense border and other security issues but negotiations are going well, the South's minister said.

John Kong flew in from Juba on Sunday for talks with his Sudanese counterpart Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein.

The incoming head of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said on Saturday she supported military intervention in Mali as long as it did not worsen insecurity there.

"If there is a need for it ... as long as it's done in a way that does not cause, create more problems than there are," she said when asked if she approved sending troops in to confront al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants controlling northern Mali.

Ethiopia has had a long line of leaders dying in secret, hidden behind closed doors, but not a long history of funerals.

In 1913, one of Ethiopia's most renowned emperors, Menelik II, died. His death remained a secret until 1916 when officials finally announced that he had succumbed to a stroke years earlier.

Top negotiators from Sudan and rival South Sudan have met in the latest round of African Union mediated talks to resolve bitter dispute, officials said Monday.

"Yesterday we had a meeting, and we tabled our positions," said Atif Kiir, a spokesman for Juba's delegation.

African Union leaders opened their biannual summit on Sunday in Addis Ababa to discuss the continent's hotspots including DR Congo and Mali, although elections for the bloc's top job overshadowed the agenda.

South Africa's Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is challenging the sitting chairman of the commission, Gabon's Jean Ping, after neither won the required two-thirds of the vote at the last summit six months ago, leaving Ping in the post.

Peace talks to end weeks of fighting between Sudan and South Sudan were deadlocked Tuesday after failing to agree on where to set up a demilitarized zone along their contested border.

Eritrea will not retaliate after rival neighbor Ethiopia attacked its territory, dismissing charges it harbors armed groups against Addis Ababa as a "base and bogus lie."

"It is those who do not know the price of war who are hungry to go to war," Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told AFP by telephone.

A vote to choose a new chairman for the African Union's influential executive Commission ended in deadlock Monday and a new election will be held in June, Zambian President Michael Sata said.

"We went for an election and none of the two candidates emerged as a winner," Sata told reporters, referring to South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who sought to unseat outgoing chairman Jean Ping from Gabon.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, in an unusually outspoken declaration Sunday, told African leaders they must respect gay rights, an issue that is controversial in many African states.

"One form of discrimination ignored or even sanctioned by many states for too long has been discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity," Ban said at an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital.

Ethiopian security forces were Thursday searching for gunmen who killed five European tourists and kidnapped at least two others and two guides in an attack it blamed on arch-rival Eritrea.

"We are working on how to respond to the attack... there are security operators there," said foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti.