(Adds Yemeni foreign minister, Islamist financier surrender)

By Sahal Abdulle and Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Ethiopian troops and Somali protesters exchanged fire in Mogadishu on Saturday killing three people, witnesses said, as hundreds of Somalis demonstrated against the foreign forces and a government disarmament drive.

And in a move likely to anger many Somalis, President Abdullahi Yusuf asked Ethiopia to train Somali armed forces, Ethiopian state television said.

Yemen's foreign minister was quoted as saying some Somali Islamist leaders, ousted by Ethiopian-backed government forces in a two-week war, were now in Yemen.

In Mogadishu, protesters hurled stones and burnt tyres, wreathing streets in smoke and reviving memories of the chaos that had largely stopped during six months of strict Islamist rule by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council.

"The Ethiopians opened fire and shot dead a young boy and a lady, they also killed another person," a witness said. Other witnesses agreed.

"The (government) and Ethiopian troops invaded our country and they have shot my son for no good reason," said Omar Halane, the boy's father.

A Somali government source said only one person had died and gave a different version of events. He said police had opened fire in Tarbuunka square, where the Islamists held anti-Ethiopian demonstrations when they controlled the capital.

In the latest show of discontent with the forces that ousted the Islamists in two weeks of open warfare, hundreds of Somalis marched through the capital chanting "Down with Ethiopia".

"We are against the Ethiopian troops' occupation. We don't want them, they should leave," 20-year-old protester Ahmed Mohamed said. "They are harassing us in our own country."

Ethiopian soldiers fired in the air to disperse crowds and government troops armed with AK-47s patrolled the streets.

A hospital source, speaking before the shooting incident, said at least five civilians were hurt.

Somalia's government wants to install itself in Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous cities. Within hours of the Islamists fleeing, militiamen loyal to warlords reappeared at checkpoints in the city where they used to terrorise civilians.

Residents fear Mogadishu could slide back into the anarchy that has gripped the city since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

The government had given Mogadishu residents until last Thursday to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force.

But government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told local radio on Saturday the disarmament programme was postponed. Few weapons have been handed in as locals wait to see if the government can impose the relative stability experienced under the Islamists.

ISLAMISTS IN YEMEN

Yusuf and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi met in Addis Ababa on Saturday and agreed Ethiopia would train Somali troops, Ethiopian state television reported. Meles told Al Jazeera on Friday his troops would leave Somalia within two weeks.

"President Yusuf requested Ethiopia to train Somali armed forces, which Prime Minister Meles accepted," the television statement said, adding that Yusuf said he planned to set up an all inclusive government.

Yemen's Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi was quoted as saying some Islamist leaders had arrived in Yemen. "Their presence ... creates an opportunity to seek an agreement between them and the transitional government of Somalia," United Arab Emirates daily al-Khaleej quoted him as saying.

News of their presence coincided with a visit to Aden of a senior U.S. official, who called for dialogue between Somali groups, including "remnants" of the defeated Islamist movement.

The Islamists, who deserted their last stronghold on Monday, have pledged to fight on. Residents say they have melted into the hills in Somalia's remote southern tip where Ethiopian and government forces are hunting them.

Kenya has sent troops to seal its frontier. A witness and a police source at the Kenyan border post of Liboi said one of the Islamists' financial backers, Abukar Omar, had surrendered.

"He was taken to a police station," the witness said.

About 23 suspected Islamist fighters, including foreigners, have been arrested, according to a Kenyan police official.

An assistant immigration minister told Reuters five Somali members of parliament had been detained in Nairobi for questioning on suspicion of helping the Islamists.

Western and African diplomats on Friday called for the urgent deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia as al Qaeda's deputy leader urged the Islamists to launch an Iraq-style insurgency against Ethiopian forces there.

(Additional reporting by Farah Robleu, Daud Yusuf in Garissa, Wangui Kanina in Nairobi, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)

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