MOGADISHU, March 09, 2007 – A Ugandan cargo plane carrying equipment and six soldiers for an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia caught fire as it landed in Mogadishu on Friday, an army spokesman and witnesses said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear and there no casualties reported.

"The plane carried military equipment and some six soldiers and everything is safe now. We highly believe that the fire was due to some technical problems" Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda told AFP.

Witnesses said the planes appeared to have suffered severe damage.

"I was inside the international airport. I saw a huge plane that was trying to land, then two of its wings caught fire ... then the fire spread to the back of the plane," said a government security official, who declined to be named.

Firefighters extinguished the fire with help from troops on the plane, he added.

Mohamed Weli, a businessman who was at Mogadishu International Airport at the time, also witnessed the fire.

"I heard a small explosion when the plane landed and then I saw the plane burning at the back and in its wings," Weli said.

The AU peacekeeping force began deploying in Somalia on Tuesday, amid continuing insurgent attacks. Around 1,000 Ugandan soldiers have already arrived in the Somali capital.

Islamists, driven out of Mogadishu by the interim government and Ethiopian forces in December, have vowed to fight foreign forces and are thought to be behind almost daily attacks in the city.

Source: AFP