Agence France Presse report

The Islamic alliance which has taken control of several areas of Somalia warned on Sunday of fresh fighting in the shattered African country if Ethiopia, which it has accused of launching a military incursion, refuses to pull its troops out of the country.

Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed, the leader of the Joint Islamic Courts, said he had “confirmed” that some 300 Ethiopian troops crossed into southwestern Somalia early on Saturday, apparently to counter his increasingly powerful group.

“We ask them to go (back) to their country, if not their presence will cause a big conflict between the invaders and Somali people,” Ahmed told a news conference in Jowhar, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Mogadishu.

But Addis Ababa has denied the charge, saying it had instead boosted troop levels along their common border because of the Islamists’ unspecified provocation. There was no independent confirmation of the charge.

The Islamic alliance has alleged that the United States is encouraging Addis Ababa to check the advance of the radical Islamic militia and protect Somalia’s fledgling transitional government based in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the capital.

Largely secular Ethiopia, an ally of the United States’s counter-terrorism efforts, has been wary of the swift victory of the Islamic Courts militia over warlords being assisted by Washington to fight extremists suspected to be in Somalia.

Western intelligence has accused the Islamic courts of harbouring operatives linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network and inviting in foreign fighters.

In addition, Ahmed said his group was ready to renew talks with the Somali government under a proposal from Yemen President President Ali Abdullah Saleh, without any conditions.

“We are ready to negotiate with the government without any conditions attached,” he added.

On Thursday, Sanaa announced that the Ahmed and transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had agreed to talks in or outside Somalia, but Yusuf later insisted that the parley would take place only if the Islamists retreat from the territories they have seized.

Islamic representatives pulled out of preliminary talks in Mogadishu last week to protest the decision by the country’s parliament to discuss the deployment of peacekeepers to protect government officials and help them exert control across the country.

The deployment was approved on Wednesday, but Islamists have vowed to attack any peacekeepers who step on Somali soil.

“Again, we repeat that we are against peacekeepers coming to Somalia. We are capable of restoring peace in our country and that is what we have started,” Ahmed said.

After seizing Mogadishu early this month, the Islamic fighters swiftly marched northwards, overrunning Jowhar in Middle Shabelle region and a string of other small outposts in Hiiraan region without heavy resistance.

Ethiopia claims that Islamic fighters are engaged in “provocative activities” from the border town of Beledweyne.

Since the clashes erupted in Mogadishu in February, at least 360 people have been killed and more than 2,000 others wounded, many of them civilians, but residents say the toll could be much higher.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991 and more than 14 international efforts have failed to restore a functioning administration in the lawless nation of 10 million.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Sunday pressed the world to end the conflict in Somalia or risk a worsening humanitarian crisis.

“What we appeal to the international community, both in Somalia as everywhere else, to do is to do its best to create conditions for a peaceful settlement of the problems and an adequate political solution,” UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres told a news conference in Nairobi.