Eritrea on Monday denounced accusations by Ethiopia that Eritrean troops were present inside the country as "false and fabricated".

Relations between the two Horn of Africa countries have long been fraught but in recent months, Addis Ababa has accused Eritrea of supporting insurgents on Ethiopian soil -- allegations Asmara denies.

On Saturday, Ethiopia demanded that Eritrea "withdraw its troops from Ethiopian territory". 

"The patently false and fabricated accusations against Eritrea... is astounding in its tone and substance, underlying motivation and overarching objective," said Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel in a statement.

"Sadly, it constitutes yet another deplorable act in a pattern and spiral of hostile campaigns against Eritrea for more than two years now," he said.

He added that Eritrea had "no appetite for, or desire to, engage in meaningless acrimony to add fuel and exacerbate the situation".

Addis Ababa also accused Asmara of collaborating with rebel groups fighting federal forces, particularly in the Amhara region, labelling them not "just provocations but acts of outright aggression".

Eritrea, one of the world's most closed countries, gained independence in 1993 after decades of armed struggle against Ethiopia. 

They later fought a 1998-2000 border war in which tens of thousands died.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed initially sought rapprochement with Eritrea when he came to power, earning him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

The two governments cooperated against rebels from Ethiopia's Tigray region during the 2020-2022 conflict but fell out over the peace accord, from which Eritrea was excluded, and which stipulated the withdrawal of foreign soldiers.

The Tigray civil war killed at least 600,000 people, according to the African Union, and the resulting peace deal, known as the Pretoria Agreement, has never fully resolved the tensions.

Eritrean soldiers have been present in the Tigray region since the war, but after the end of hostilities they have increasingly been at loggerheads.

Eritrea accuses landlocked Ethiopia of coveting its Assab port, with Abiy insisting for years his country must have access to the sea through peaceful means.