Ethiopian troops pull out of Somali port Kismayu

KISMAYU, Somalia, Mar 9 (Reuters) Ethiopian troops withdrew from the southern city of Kismayu, leaving it in the hands of Somalia's interim government until African Union (AU) peacekeepers arrive, officials said today.

The strategic port was the last major city the Ethiopians and government forces took in their swift December victory over militant Islamists who had controlled most of southern Somalia for six months.

''Yesterday afternoon, our friends who have been helping us in training and security left,'' Kismayu Police Chief Abdi Mohamed Abdulle told Reuters, adding the Ethiopian contingent had amounted to about 2,000 soldiers.

The lucrative port of Kismayu has been fought over by local militias for years and was a source of tension inside the government. The Islamists forcibly took it over from militias controlled by the government's defence minister.

Ethiopia had no immediate comment on the troop withdrawal, but Addis Ababa has started pulling some of its soldiers out of a country where they are viewed by many Somalis as invaders from a historic Horn of Africa rival.

The Ethiopians are to make way for a proposed 8,000-strong AU force, the first elements of which have been given the same reception as the Ethiopians -- near-daily attacks by insurgents which are thought to include defeated Islamist fighters.

More than 1,000 Ugandan peacekeepers, the vanguard of a force designed to help the shaky government tame a nation in anarchy since 1991, landed this week in Mogadishu -- arguably one of the toughest cities in the world to police.

The Ugandans have been attacked since landing in the capital on Tuesday and two were wounded in an ambush the following day -- getting the same treatment as US and UN troops whose peacekeeping mission failed with a bloody withdrawal in 1995.

Today there was a brief scare after a small fire broke on the landing gear of a cargo plane that had previously landed with seven soldiers and a host or military equipment.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear but it was not believed to be the result of an attack.

The Ugandans are also deploying tanks in Somalia. A dozen of them were loaded onto a freighter late yesterday at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, where they were shipped by train from landlocked Uganda. They are due in Mogadishu soon.

Analysts say the AU -- already threatened with attack by Islamist remnants -- are targets because they are foreigners in a land known for its xenophobia and are seen as supporting a government that has many enemies in Mogadishu.

None of the 13 other attempts at government has succeeded in laying down central authority in a nation in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

REUTERS DKA VC1800