Baidoa , Somalia, August 26, 2006 – SOMALIA'S interim government accused Eritrea today of sending troops and weapons to help the country's newly powerful Islamist movement, and said such action was the main obstacle to peace.

Eritrea has long denied any involvement in Somalia, but a UN Security Council report in May said it has sent weapons to the Islamists repeatedly in a bid to frustrate rival Ethiopia, which supports the government.

The report also accused Addis Ababa of defying the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia by shipping weapons to the government.

"There have been arms shipments from Eritrea to Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia," the transitional government's envoy to Ethiopia, Abdikarim Farah, told a meeting of the African Union's Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa.

"There were also three ships that left (Eritrea's) Massawa port carrying 1500 Eritrean troops which docked at Warshikh, 60km north of Mogadishu and at Marka, 80km south of Mogadishu," Mr. Farah said. He gave no more details.

"These activities by Eritrea are the main obstacle to dialogue between the different groups in Somalia," he said.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a 1998-2000 border war that cost 70,000 lives. Efforts to find a lasting solution have failed, and tensions between the rivals remain high.

Ethiopia backs Somalia's weak but internationally recognized government, which is based in the provincial town of Baidoa and whose authority is under threat from the Islamists' rising power and territorial gains.

Witnesses say thousands of Ethiopian troops have entered the country since July to prop up the administration. Addis Ababa rejects such reports as Islamist propaganda, but has made no secret of the fact it has massed troops on the Somali border.

The Islamists, who seized Mogadishu and strategic southern regions in June, have refused to negotiate with the government until the Ethiopians leave, and diplomats fear Somalia could become a proxy battleground between Addis Ababa and Asmara.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

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