Ugandan army advance team lands in Somalia

BAIDOA, Somalia, Mar 1 (Reuters) A small advance team of Ugandan peacekeeping soldiers landed in the Somali government's interim capital today, a Somali customs officer said.

The Ugandan officers wearing uniforms arrived on a cargo plane early in Baidoa, the south-central trading town where the government made its temporary home until defeating rival Islamists in a December war and taking the capital Mogadishu.

''Thirty-five officers from Uganda came out and the plane left,'' customs officer Ali Mohamed Adan told Reuters.

The Ugandan government, which has been secretive about their exact deployment date on security grounds, denied the report.

''There are no (Ugandan) troops in Baidoa. There are no troops in Somalia,'' said Ugandan army Captain Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the A U mission. ''We're leaving next week.'' REUTERS PB SSC1245