Ethiopian official confirms troops are on Somalia's border

The leader of the Somali Islamist group that captured the capital said 300 Ethiopian troops had entered the country on Saturday, but an Ethiopian official said his country's soldiers were at the border and had not crossed it.

Photo: Ethiopian official confirms troops are on Somalia's border

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, said Ethiopian troops entered Somalia through the southwestern border town of Dolow at 8 a.m. (0500GMT).

"We want the whole world to know what's going on," Ahmed told journalists. "Ethiopia has crossed our borders and are heading for us. They are supporting the transitional federal government."

In recent days, Ethiopian troops have been crossing into Somali border towns and leaving, Ahmed said.

"They have deployed a lot of soldiers around the border towns, which is why we have been saying that Ethiopia is going to send in troops to Somalia," the cleric said.

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopian troops had not entered Somalia.

"Ethiopia has a right to monitor its border," Bereket told The Associated Press. He gave no further details.

It was the first statement by an Ethiopian official about troops at the border.

Also in Addis Ababa, a senior African Union official, El Ghassim Wane, said the organization's Peace and Security Council will meet Monday to decide the details of a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, after the country's parliament voted Wednesday for peacekeepers to help the government try to establish itself.

The Islamic Courts Union, accused by the United States of harboring al-Qaida, opposes any peacekeeping mission and says it can bring order and unity to the country.

The group is behind the militiamen that have swept across southern Somalia installing clan-based, religiously oriented municipal administrations.

It captured Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, on June 6 after months of on-and-off fighting with an alliance of U.S.-backed secular warlords and now controls most of southern Somalia.

More than 330 people died in the fighting, most of them civilians.

Ahmed denied on Saturday that any foreigners were involved in the Islamic courts or that any one in the courts had ties to al-Qaida.

Ethiopia has intervened in Somalia in the past to prevent Islamic extremists from taking power, reports AP.

O.Ch.