Peace force proposed for Somalia as Qaeda threatens

"Situations change but I do not see it now, and there's nothing that I've heard that implies that at all," said General William Ward, deputy commander of U.S. European Command and a former brigade commander in Somalia.

The United States said however that it would give $24 million to Somalia, both for development and to support the peacekeeping force, in addition to $16 million announced earlier in the week.

"You want to make sure that the Transitional Federal Government has an opportunity to get its legs under it and really start to become a more robust entity and start reaching out to the political parties," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his troops would leave within two weeks. Analysts fear the interim Somali government will flounder without Ethiopian protection. The government wants a peacekeeping force to move in fast.

Uganda says it is ready to send troops as soon as its parliament approves. A disastrous attempt by U.S. forces to pacify Somalia in the early 1990s ended with a hasty withdrawal.

"Our peacekeeping is different from these Western countries," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said. "The Western countries do not listen carefully. They are full of themselves, they think they know everything. That's why they make mistakes."

Within hours of the Islamists leaving Mogadishu, militiamen loyal to warlords ousted in June reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to rob and terrorize civilians.

On Thursday, gunmen attacked a truck carrying oil near Mogadishu, raising fears of a return to the clan violence that had largely stopped during six months of Islamist rule.

SEEKING SECURITY

Despite a government deadline for residents to hand in their weapons or be forcibly disarmed, few guns have been collected.

"People are asking to be paid money to hand over their weapons and are asking us if we can guarantee their security," Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Farah Aideed told reporters. He said it was unlikely forced disarmament would begin soon and called on the warlords to go to the government's seat Baidoa.

"The population of Mogadishu does not want them," he said.

Kenya's closure of its border crossing points has left hundreds of Somalis unable to cross to seek refuge at camps, aid workers say. A Kenyan police chief said several suspected fighters had been taken to Nairobi for questioning.

An international naval force, including U.S. warships, is patrolling the Somali coast to hunt fleeing Islamists.

"As far as chasing down the terrorists goes, I think they are cornered and we will see what happens," Frazer said.

(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed and Inal Ersan in Dubai, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Nico Gnecchi in Liboi and Daniel Wallis and Bryson Hull in Nairobi and Paul Eckert in Washington)