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Somali leader asks Ethiopia to train forces -TV
06 Jan 2007 18:19:18 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Adds details, background)

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has asked Ethiopia to train Somali armed forces after its troops helped the interim government drive out Islamists in a two-week war, Ethiopian state television said on Saturday.

"President Yusuf requested Ethiopia to train Somali armed forces, which Prime Minister Meles (Zenawi) accepted," the television statement said, adding that Yusuf, who met Meles in Addis Ababa, said he planned to set up an all-inclusive government.

The statement added that both leaders had appealed to the international community to provide urgent assistance to Somalia.

The statement, which came hours after hundreds of Somalis protested against the presence of Ethiopian troops in Mogadishu, did not say whether the training would affect Meles's plans to withdraw his troops within weeks.

Heavily armed Ethiopian forces helped the Somali government drive Islamists out of Mogadishu a week ago and end six months of Islamist rule across much of southern Somalia.
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Members of the Ugandan army (UPDF) undergo military drills at the Singo military training school, 42 miles (68 km) north of Kampala in this undated photograph. Uganda's strategic objective in sending peacekeepers to help pacify chaotic Somalia is to halt the flood of weapons fuelling conflict and banditry in other east African nations like itself, the army said on January 10, 2007. BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY