SOMALIA: Thousands of Somalis gathered in Mogadishu yesterday to protest at the deployment of Ethiopian troops to bolster the country's beleaguered interim government.
More than 3,000 people burned Ethiopian flags and carried banners declaring "We are ready for holy war against Ethiopia" at a rally organised by the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls the capital and a swathe of southern and central Somalia.
The government continues to deny the presence of troops from Ethiopia, which has long been fearful of an Islamic state on its doorstep, despite reports that they have been strengthening defences at the government's stronghold in Baidoa and at a key airstrip.
Meanwhile, peace talks scheduled to take place in Khartoum between the powerful Islamist movement and the teetering government have been postponed until next month as the country slides closer to civil war.
John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group said all-out conflict was becoming more likely each day. "I think both sides - particularly the Islamists - are throwing a few jabs, to use a boxing analogy, testing each other to see how far the other will go in advance of any talks, if they should happen," he commented.
Somalia has been without a functioning central government for 15 years. Competing warlords, military strongmen and gangsters have carved the country into a collection of personal fiefdoms.
That began to change last month when an Islamist movement, the Union of Islamic Courts, announced that it had seized control of Mogadishu from a motley collection of warlords, who had received backing from the US.
Their victory sent tremors through western capitals and regional governments, who fear that an Islamist Somalia could go the way of Afghanistan, becoming a haven for al-Qaeda.
Those fears have been realised in part. The union has replaced its moderate leader, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, with a hardliner, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is regarded as a terrorist by the US.
They have also imposed strict sharia law as their militias moved out across the country, shutting down cinemas which were screening the World Cup and sentencing rapists to death by stoning.
Last week the militias arrived in the town of Burhakaba, barely 40 miles from the provincial town of Baidoa, where the virtually impotent government sits.
Ethiopia has long promised to protect the secular government of its close ally, President Abdullahi Yusuf, whom it regards as a bulwark against Islam. Addis Ababa fears that a fundamentalist Islamic state may resurrect the idea of a "Greater Somalia", incorporating a chunk of south-eastern Ethiopia.
Last week, witnesses reported seeing several hundred Ethiopian troops crossing into Somalia to be deployed in and around Baidoa in response to the Islamists' advance. "About 25 vehicles have arrived here from Ethiopia," said one resident. "Some are technicals and others are lorries carrying troops wearing Ethiopian uniforms, so there are probably more than 100 soldiers here."
Ethiopia and Somalia have both consistently denied the claims, with the Somali government saying witnesses had seen its troops wearing Ethiopian uniforms.
However, a source close to the transitional government confirmed to The Irish Times that Ethiopian soldiers were present in Baidoa and had moved down the road towards Burhakaba.
"There were ethnic Somalis among them, but there were also Tigrayans and Oromos and troops from a number of Ethiopian ethnic groups," he said.
This prompted Islamist leaders - some of whom fought against Ethiopian troops in the Somali region of Puntland during the 1990s - to announce at the weekend that they wanted no further part in the Khartoum talks.
At the same time, after boycotting the talks for more than a week, a Somali government source, who asked not to be named, said that a delegation was ready to travel to Khartoum early next month. "As far as we are concerned, the talks have not been cancelled, only postponed," he said.
The presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil raises a question mark over the participation of the Union of Islamic Courts. Yesterday's rally in Mogadishu was addressed by Islamist leaders, some of whom talked up the prospect of bloodshed.
"Anybody who allies himself to the Ethiopians will be regarded as a non-believer who violated the principle of Islam and will face jihad," said Sheikh Ahmed Kare, a hardliner.