Mogadishu, April 06, 2007 (AFP) - Dozens of Ethiopian troop reinforcements headed to the Somali capital after flying into a nearby town local residents told AFP on Friday, five days after a shaky ceasefire took hold in Mogadishu.

Residents of Baidoa, 250 kilometers north-west of Mogadishu, said two Ethiopian planes landed on Thursday carrying dozens of Ethiopian troops, who left for Mogadishu overnight.

"I have seen two huge military planes. They arrived at Baidoa airport in the afternoon (Thursday). They carried a lot of Ethiopian troops," said Mohamed Aden Abdi, who lives near Baidoa airport.

"I have seen some nine military vehicles in the street. They were going towards Mogadishu."

Another resident, Abdillahi Isak, said he saw five vehicles carrying dozens of troops heading in the same direction.

Ethiopia denied it had deployed more troops to Somalia.

"This is not true. There are no additional troops to Somalia," a spokesperson from the Ethiopian information ministry, Zemedkum Tekle, told AFP.

"It is getting calmer and calmer and there is no need to do that. We have pulled out almost two-thirds of our troops from Somalia and there is no need for further deployments."

An Ethiopian offensive just over a week ago triggered four days of the worst fighting in Mogadishu in more than 15 years. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands forced to flee.

On Monday Mogadishu residents said hundreds of Ethiopian forces had joined deployments in the south of the city. Ethiopia said it was strengthening its positions but had not deployed more troops.

On Friday brief exchanges of weapon fire and shelling could be heard in the early hours near Mogadishu's soccer stadium, where Ethiopian troops have been facing off with Islamist insurgents and clan fighters since Sunday.

Most residents have fled the area, and the nearby Al Kamin neighborhood.

Ethiopian forces helped the Somali transitional government drive Islamist fighters with alleged links to the al-Qaeda network out of south and central Somalia about three months ago.

Source: AFP