Mr Meles, who died aged 57 at a Belgian hospital, had ruled Ethiopia since 1991.
BBC: Ethiopia funeral held for church patriarch Abune Paulos
In any event, Meles Zenawi's government is finding it hard to run the show.
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Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, is determined to dam his bit of the Nile.
In any case, the economic story is not quite as rosy as Mr Meles suggests.
So Mr Meles is up against it, at home and abroad, but apparently relishing the challenges.
Mr Meles died at the age of 57 in Brussels, following a long illness.
It was with sadness that I learned of the passing of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.
Internationally, Mr Meles made friends with America, allowing it to base unarmed drones at a remote airfield.
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Mr Meles' death has sparked concern of instability in Ethiopia, as rival factions compete for power, analysts say.
BBC: Ethiopia funeral held for church patriarch Abune Paulos
On Wednesday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi announced that, as far as Ethiopia was concerned, the war was over.
Officials say that Mr Meles had anyway intended to step down in 2015.
Mr Meles saw the war as a chance to establish his nationalist credentials.
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Were Mr Meles to leave in a hurry, relations between the young modernisers and the powerful old guard might fray.
Mr Meles's officials, most of them still working in gloomy Soviet-built offices, often sound almost paranoid in their sensitivity to criticism.
All this is the responsibility of Mr Meles's Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which has run the show since 1991.
Many African dictators saw in Mr Meles another feature bolstering their own positions: a proof of the need for top-down government.
Meanwhile Mr Meles, at 57, has promoted younger people, such as Mr Hailemariam, a water engineer with a degree from Finland.
Mr Meles and Issaias Afwerki, Eritrea's president, appear to be as surprised as everybody else to find they are at war.
The coffin was accompanied by hundreds of mourners, including Mr Meles' widow Azeb Mesfin, who was seen being comforted by officials.
Mr Meles has gambled that donors are keener to see good results from their money than to require proof of democratic behaviour.
The two leaders, Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia, and Issaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea, seem determined to slug it out.
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Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said at the weekend that, by threatening sanctions, the Security Council was "punishing the victim of aggression, Ethiopia".
Thousands of people have been attending the state funeral in Addis Ababa of Ethiopia's long-serving Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who died last month.
The party is dominated by former Marxist rebels from Tigray, even though Tigrayans, among them Mr Meles, make up only 6% of Ethiopia's population.
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, gave warning that his country faced a famine worse than that of 1984 if food aid was not increased.
Mr Meles' flag-draped coffin was carried from his palace to the city's Meskel Square for a ceremony, then buried at the Holy Trinity Cathedral.
Mr Meles is understandably worried by events in the wider region.
The European badger (Meles meles) is a protected species under European and UK law, but ministers can sanction killing in certain circumstances, including to tackle disease.
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But on Wednesday, Information Minister Bereket Simon said the ceremony had been postponed because people wanted more time to mourn Mr Meles' death, AP news agency reports.
BBC: Ethiopia funeral held for church patriarch Abune Paulos
Ethiopia' President Meles Zenawi emerged as Africa's political victor - the chosen champion of France and the UK as they sought African support for their finance proposal.
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