ADDIS ABABA, November 30, 2006 – Ethiopia's parliament voted on Thursday to let the government take "all necessary" steps to rebuff any invasion by Somalia's Islamists amid reports Ethiopian troops on Somali soil had died in a landmine blast.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi urged lawmakers last week to back his plans to fight the Islamists, who have declared jihad on Ethiopia accusing it of sending troops into Somalia to prop up the chaotic country's fragile interim government.

"Parliament hereby authorizes the government to take all necessary and legal steps to stave off a declaration of holy war and invasion by the Union of Islamic Courts against the country," Thursday's resolution said.

"The parliament believes the Islamic Courts group has presented clear and present danger to the sovereignty of the country," it said. The motion was approved by 311 to 90 votes, with 16 abstentions.

In the latest report of violence in Somalia, residents said the Islamists used a landmine to blow up a lorry carrying Ethiopian and Somali troops late on Wednesday, killing several.

If confirmed, the incident would be the latest in a string of small clashes reported in the Horn of Africa nation that diplomats fear could escalate into all-out conflict at any time.

In a Reuter’s interview last month, Meles said Ethiopia was already "technically" at war with the Islamists, whom he said were "spoiling for a fight".

On Thursday, he told parliament Ethiopia was not declaring war on the Islamists, just asserting its right to self-defense.

"SMUGGLING REBELS"

"The jihadists in the Union of Islamic Courts, in collaboration with Eritrea, have already invaded Ethiopia by smuggling in rebel groups whom they trained and armed ... to destabilize and create upheaval in the country," Meles said.

The Islamists say Ethiopia has sent thousands of troops into Somalia, while Addis Ababa insists it has only sent several hundred military trainers for President Abdillahi Yusuf's administration, which is confined to provincial Baidoa town.

Residents said Wednesday's attack took place between Baidoa and Manaas town, where some government troops are based.

"I saw an Ethiopian lorry pass the town of Goof Gaduud. A few minutes later I heard a big explosion and I saw lots of smoke," resident Abdillahi Abdi told Reuters by telephone. "I also saw vehicles carrying the injured and the dead."

The number of casualties was not immediately known.

Neither the Islamists, nor Ethiopia nor the interim Somali government had any immediate comment on the reported attack.

Amid the heightening tensions in Somalia, the U.N. Security Council pledged on Wednesday to consider steps to tighten a widely ignored 1992 U.N. arms embargo on the chaotic nation.

That surprised some diplomats, who suggested Washington was pushing for the embargo to be modified to allow an African-led peacekeeping force into Somalia.

The Islamists -- who seized Mogadishu and much of the south in June in a direct challenge to the government's authority -- bitterly oppose foreign fighters operating in Somalia.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since the fall of former dictator Siyad Barre in 1991 sparked the collapse of the country into a patchwork of quarrelling fiefdoms.

Source: Reuters