"The arms embargo and the other sanctions from by UNSC against Eritrea's government are an appropriate and just decision," Shimeles Kemal, a government spokesman, told AFP.

The UN Security Council passed the resolution on Wednesday, accusing Ethiopia's arch-foe of "efforts to destabilise or overthrow, directly or indirectly" the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) in Somalia.

The text also presses Eritrea to withdraw troops immediately from disputed territories along its frontier with Djibouti, and engage in diplomatic efforts leading to "a mutually acceptable" settlement of their long-running border dispute.

"The international delinquent state of Eritrea has for long been pursuing a strategy to destabilise the entire Horn of Africa and has been promoting and abetting terrorist forces in the region," Shimeles said.

In a statement, the Eritrean foreign ministry slammed the decision as "a shameful day" for the United Nations.

"As Eritrea has strongly emphasised in the past weeks, this brazen act is neither based on fact nor on the provisions of international law. It constitutes a travesty of justice and amplifies the dangers inherent in a unipolar world," it said.

Some 80,000 people died in a 1998-2000 border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, many in brutal World War I style trench warfare.

A UN-backed boundary commission charged with demarcating the border handed the disputed town of Badme to Eritrea but Addis Ababa has refused to recognise the ruling.