Ethiopian troops begin leaving Somalia

MOGADISHU, Jan 23 (Reuters) Ethiopian forces who helped Somalia's interim government rout rival Islamists in a war over the New Year began leaving the chaotic Horn of Africa nation's capital today, Ethiopia said.

''Starting today, we will withdraw our forces from Mogadishu,'' General Suem Hagoss said at a ceremony in the volatile coastal capital where former warlords and faction leaders handed over piles of weapons to the newly installed government.

Later in the day, the Ethiopian Information Ministry confirmed the pullout had started.

Somalia's Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed said the Ethiopian forces guarding his fledgling government would be replaced by African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

''Troops from Malawi, Uganda and Nigeria are going to arrive within a week,'' Aideed told reporters after the function.

South Africa, Libya, Tanzania, Angola and Congo had also agreed to send soldiers, he added, but he did not say when.

President Abdullahi Yusuf arrived in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Tuesday for a two-day visit with President Paul Kagame, the Rwandan presidential press office said.

Kagame has said Rwanda could be involved with military and police training but wanted to make sure his military -- already contributing troops to the AU mission in Darfur -- did not become overstretched with more peacekeeping commitments.

Ethiopia, which called the Islamists ''terrorists'', played a lead role in helping government troops oust them in a two-week war launched before Christmas.

The AU has approved a nearly 8,000-strong force, but experts doubt its capacity to muster it, let alone tame a nation in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

EU ''ENCOURAGING ISLAMISTS'' Donors have pledged tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Somalia, but the European Union (EU) angered its government on Monday by tying 15 million euros ( million) for peacekeepers to an inclusive government reconciliation effort.

''The EU has no right to impose and dictate to us who and what will be included,'' government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.

''The statements coming from the EU are unfair and encourage the Islamists to continue their fight.'' EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said he wanted the government to restore ousted parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, lift or ease a three-month imposition of martial law and boost press freedom.

In Kenya on Tuesday, police were questioning a top Islamist leader taken into custody on Sunday at the Somali border.

''Sheikh Sharif Ahmed ... is in Kenya under police custody.

The police are talking to him,'' Kenya said in a brief statement.

Ahmed is the highest-ranking member of the former Somalia Islamic Courts Union (SICC) to have turned himself in after they were chased from the capital and southern Somali territories they had controlled for six months.

Considered a moderate before the war, Ahmed is among those the United States sees as a potential force in reconciliation.

The U.S. embassy in Kenya said Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger planned to meet Ahmed later this week.

''The ambassador will urge Sheikh Sharif to counsel his supporters not to carry out violence and to support the development of an inclusive government,'' the embassy said.

Washington launched an air strike two weeks ago against what it called al Qaeda operatives among the fleeing Islamist ranks in its first publicly confirmed military action there since ending a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.

The Islamists and some foreign supporters have vowed to wage guerrilla war against Ethiopian troops in the country, and many Somalis suspect their militants have been behind a spate of attacks in Mogadishu, the latest of which took place on Monday.

REUTERS Mir RK2335