The present invention elects an area border router from a plurality of potential area border routers by determining a full set of all areas attached to a router. A determination is made as to a full set of area pairs from the determined full set of areas. Routers are identified in a first area of the determined full set of areas that are reachable through an intra-area route in the first area, and routers are identified in a second area of the determined full set of areas that are reachable through an intra-area route in the second area. If there is a router that is unreachable through either an intra-area route in the first area or an intra-area route in the second area, then declare the first router to be an area border router, else new first and second areas are selected.