(Adds Gedi on disarmament, paragraphs 10-11, details)

By C. Bryson Hull

MOGADISHU, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Ethiopian tanks rumbled south from Mogadishu to attack Somali Islamists on Saturday after the religious movement's leaders called on fighters and residents in the port city of Kismayu to drive out the foreign "occupiers".

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, whose forces fled the Somali capital on Thursday, urged thousands of people gathered at a Kismayu stadium for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha to defend their nation and faith from Somali government troops backed by armour, soldiers and jet fighter planes from mostly Christian Ethiopia.

"Our country is under occupation so we have decided to fight," he told the crowd as Islamist troops on trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns stood guard outside.

Ahmed said his Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) remained ready to negotiate with the interim government, but that the Ethiopian soldiers backing it must leave.

He said the Courts were set up to restore stability in a nation that has been mired in anarchy, torn to pieces and squabbled over by warlords since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

"But now we are gearing up to kick these occupiers out of our country," the SICC chairman said.

Islamist troops abandoned the coastal capital they had ruled by sharia law for six months on Thursday in the face of a 10-day Ethiopian offensive of land and air assaults.

Residents of Mogadishu have greeted the forces of the interim government and their Ethiopian backers with a mixture of jubilation, fear and protests.

Crowning the dramatic reversal, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi swept into Mogadishu on Friday saying the fight for political survival had been won.

He said he was to meet top military officers late on Saturday to discuss plans to give militia and civilians in the city 48 hours to hand in their weapons or be disarmed by force.

It was unclear when the order would be issued, and sporadic gunfire rang out across the capital throughout the day.

Earlier, President Abdullahi Yusuf landed in an Ethiopian military helicopter about 20 km (12 miles) west of Mogadishu and held talks with faction leaders and elders.

"This government has a duty to return peace," he told reporters at a run-down army camp. "The whole country has become people and guns... We have passed 15 years of civil war. We now need to forgive each other and hold hands."

Sitting on a plastic chair under a large thorn tree, Yusuf said he would not enter the capital this time and would return to the government's base in the provincial town of Baidoa.

"I will come to Mogadishu once everything is in place."

"JIHAD GOES ON"

Experts say it will be far from easy for him and Gedi to tame a city where fierce street fighting forced a humiliating retreat by U.S. forces more than a decade ago following an ill-fated mission depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down".

Hundreds of residents demonstrated on Saturday south of Mogadishu, burning tyres and chanting anti-Ethiopian slogans.

There was a similar protest in the capital on Friday.

Regional experts say the initial impression of a resounding government victory was by no means certain and that the conflict could well take another turn.

Ethiopian warplanes screamed over Kismayu and nearby Jilib town on Friday and Saturday, spreading fear among residents.

Kismayu lies some 300 km (185 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.

A Somali government soldier said the Islamists -- accused by Addis Ababa and Washington of being backed by Al Qaeda -- had laced the highway from Mogadishu with mines as they pulled back.

"We are heading to Jilib in a convoy of 15 Ethiopian tanks," Ahmednur Yasin told Reuters by telephone. "There are more forces heading to Buale and I am sure the fighting will start soon."

"All the terrorists are in Jilib and Kismayu," said a senior Somali government source.

The Islamists said they knew they were going to be attacked.

"We will fight the Ethiopian invaders. The jihad will not stop," said one SICC fighter who asked not to be named.

As dusk fell across the south, the situation remained tense but there were no reports of new battles.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says days of violence could have killed hundreds and called the rapid military escalation Somalia's "heaviest fighting in a decade".

Parliament was expected to vote on Saturday to declare three months of martial law aimed at disarming thousands of militia loyal to a host of former warlords blamed for years of anarchy.

Gedi's government depends almost entirely on Ethiopia for its military muscle, analysts say, and it was far from clear how it would maintain security if or when they leave.

Residents and analysts fear a guerrilla war by the SICC.

But Gedi's move to Mogadishu on Friday was seen as a symbolic step that drove up confidence in the local market.

In one day, moneychangers and street vendors said the Somali shilling shot up to 10,000 per dollar from 14,000 on Thursday. (Additional reporting by Sahra Abdi in Kismayu, Guled Mohamed and Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu)

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