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An African summit ended Wednesday with a proposed peacekeeping force for Somalia still lacking firm commitments for thousands of troops, despite fears the country could plunge back into anarchy.

Much of the second day of the African Union (AU) summit was dominated by discussions on the need to urgently raise 8,000 troops for Somalia.

The force is required to fill a vacuum when Ethiopian troops pull out soon, after ousting Islamists who ruled much of the Horn of Africa country for six months.

But Ghana's President John Kufuor, the new AU chairman, told a late-night final news conference after Tuesday's session that the number of troops firmly pledged so far was only 4,000, with other countries still mulling contributions.

"That we have 4,000 shows that we have come to the stage that we have 50 percent already," said Kufuor. "It's early days yet. We have asked the nations to contribute and I expect that they will contribute."

At the opening of the summit on Monday, AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare urged the leaders to raise more troops, saying hardly 4,000 had been pledged so far and warning of chaos if the force was not deployed.

But despite extensive discussions at the summit, the number firmly committed appears not to have increased, although pledges of logistical support have been made.

Many African nations are nervous about committing soldiers to one of the world's most dangerous countries where warlords and their gunmen ruled unchecked for 15 years.

The dangers were underlined on Tuesday when a series of blasts rocked northern Mogadishu in an area of the capital where Ethiopian troops are based, security sources and residents said.

There was no immediate information on casualties after the blasts, which occurred on the same day a Somali Islamist website posted a message purporting to be from a new insurgency group vowing to kill African peacekeepers.

The authenticity of the posting could not be confirmed.

EU releases US$19 million funding

The European Union has released €15 million (US$19 million) to finance the Somalia peacekeepers.

Uganda, Nigeria and Burundi have pledged most of the troops so far, with an unknown number also committed by Ghana and Malawi. Zambia is considering a contribution.

A senior Algerian official said his country would provide about 12 transport planes to airlift the troops.

Ethiopia says its mission is complete after its warplanes, tanks and troops swept aside the Islamist militia in a two-week Christmas war. It wants the first AU units to deploy by mid-February.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told reporters the pledges of up to 4,000 troops so far were "very encouraging because this is the first phase of the deployment".
 
He said Addis Ababa was confident the troops would be deployed before Ethiopia withdrew in a few weeks.

The summit thanked Addis Ababa for supporting the interim government in Somalia and defeating the Islamists.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf told the summit his government would shortly call a broad reconciliation conference of clan, religious and political leaders as well as other prominent figures to discuss the country's future.

(China Daily via agencies February 1, 2007)