ADDIS ABABA, December 7 (Reuters) - An Australian and a Briton working for Save the Children UK have been ordered out of Ethiopia's troubled Ogaden region, aid sources said on Friday.

"They have been working in Ogaden on business visas, but were then refused additional work permits and asked to leave," said an aid worker in Addis Ababa, who asked not to be named.

The Ethiopian army has this year been carrying out an offensive against the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebel movement in the remote eastern region bordering Somalia.

Several organisations were ordered out in July, but the Ethiopian government has since then relaxed restrictions, and licensed the United Nations and 19 agencies to work there amid fears of a humanitarian crisis fuelled by the fighting.

Save the Children has been working in Ethiopia since 1932, and runs education, livestock and sanitation projects in Ogaden.

It was not clear why the two Save the Children workers, both men, had been told to leave. A spokeswoman in London said the charity was checking reports on the subject.

Ethiopian government officials had no comment. (Reporting by Barry Malone, editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Mary Gabriel)

AlertNet news is provided by