Somali govt sees African peacekeepers in weeks

BAIDOA, Somalia (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Tuesday it expected African peacekeepers in by the end of the month to help pacify the Horn of Africa nation emerging from a war to oust Islamist hardliners.

"The African troops coming from the African Union -- especially South Africa, Nigeria, Malawi and Uganda which have pledged to contribute troops -- will come within two weeks," Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told parliament.

Although some momentum seems to be gathering on the continent for such a mission to Somalia, Gedi's prediction still looked optimistic given that most analysts believe it will take far longer to muster the funds and troops necessary.

The interim government is trying to bring the volatile nation of 10 million under control after its soldiers, backed by Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes, routed Islamists in late December who had seized much of the south.

Ethiopia wants to withdraw its soldiers in weeks.

But diplomats fear that would leave a security vacuum around the government, which is calling for the urgent deployment of a promised AU peacekeeping force.

Only Uganda has publicly pledged troops. But Kenya, which heads the east African body IGAD, is leading a diplomatic offensive to get more countries on board, and Washington has promised money.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has said he will consider sending troops, but military operations elsewhere may limit his ability. And Mozambique said on Monday it was training a contingent for possible use in Somalia or Sudan.

Even if an African force does move into Somalia, it faces a mammoth task to tame a nation which has been in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of a dictator and which defied the best efforts of U.S. and U.N. peacekeepers in the early 1990s.

As well as the threat of a guerrilla war from Islamist remnants, who are hiding in south Somalia, other threats to security include the return of warlords, the prevalence of weapons across the country, and long-running clan rivalries.

Kenyan police said on Tuesday they were checking a rumor that hardline Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, on the run since the collapse of his movement over the New Year, was considering giving himself up.

One police source said Aweys had offered to hand himself over to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR on the Kenya-Somalia border, but that could not be confirmed.