"Stage set for success" in counter-terrorism, US says

US military commanders have said counter-terrorism activities in the Horn of Africa region over the last 30 days have "set the stage for success".

A spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF), Major Stephen Cox, told a telephone news briefing aboard the USS Mt Whitney in the Gulf of Aden that the US was working with host nations to "deny the re-emergence of terrorist cells and activities".

Addressing the same briefing, the force commander, Major General John Sattler, said areas under particular scrutiny included Somalia and coastlines across the Gulf of Aden. He stressed that the US was in a coalition with regional states.

"We're not just tracking al-Qaeda," he said. "Our mission is for all transnational terrorism, regardless if it's individual, if it's sponsored by an organisation like al-Qaeda or [if] it's even cells that we haven't heard of."

"We're getting more and more information turned into intelligence every day," he added. He also said the US was "looking at the options to go ahead and phase ashore", but stressed the decision had not yet been made.

The US currently has some 900 military forces stationed in Djibouti, and a further 400 aboard the USS Mt Whitney.

Meanwhile, three countries in the region - Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen - reaffirmed their commitment to fighting terrorism in the region. The countries' foreign ministers, who met in Khartoum over the weekend, also denied they were isolating Eritrea.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin accused Eritrea of "isolating itself". "But as peoples of the region, we do recognise the many bonds that the Eritrean people share with us," he said, according to Sudanese television. "We embrace the Eritrean people."

Asmara has dismissed the grouping as an "axis of belligerence" and accused it of destabilising the region.

The Khartoum meeting was a continuation of the Sanaa summit held last October between the leaders of the three countries.