He said he was not happy with the rhetoric coming from the Egyptians but dismissed the claims of some analysts that war could eventually erupt.

"I am not worried that the Egyptians will suddenly invade Ethiopia. Nobody who has tried that has lived to tell the story. I don't think the Egyptians will be any different and I think they know that," Meles told Reuters.

Ethiopia and Egypt dispute over access to the waters of the Nile is growing as Ethiopia wants to take more water from it.

Egypt, Ethiopia and seven other countries through which the river passes have been locked in more than a decade of contentious talks driven by anger over the perceived injustice of a previous Nile water treaty signed in 1929.

That agreement between Egypt and Britain - the regional power at that time - gives Egypt most of the Nile's water and Egypt has said it cannot afford to give up this claim because of the needs of its own booming population.

"The Egyptians have yet to make up their minds as to whether they want to live in the 21st or the 19th century," said Meles referring to the fact the original treaty was negotiated by colonial administrators.

Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya signed a new deal to share the waters in May, provoking Egypt to call it a "national security" issue.

The five countries’ new deal has given the other Nile Basin countries one year to join the pact before putting it into action. But Sudan has supported Egypt while Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi have so far rejected to sign.

Egypt, almost totally dependent on the Nile and threatened by climate change, is closely watching hydroelectric dam construction in the upstream countries.

Ethiopia has built five huge dams over the last decade and has begun construction on a new $1.4 billion hydropower facility -- the biggest in Africa.