US gives green light to Ethiopia to arm Somali Government

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KINSHASA, July 31 (Reuters) - The international community should help Somalia's interim government set up a defence force to keep out neighbours meddling in its growing crisis, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Monday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer has warned Horn of Africa foes Eritrea and Ethiopia to stay out of Somalia, where they are believed to be backing rival sides.

Witnesses say Ethiopia has sent troops to back the fragile interim government and Eritrea is believed to be supplying arms to rival Islamists, whose rise has challenged the administration's authority.

"Very clearly the transitional federal institutions are considered the legitimate entities for government and they need to have some type of defence," Frazer told Reuters on Monday.

"We as a matter of urgency need to consider the request for some type of force to come in and train up those transitional federal institutions. That's the best way to keep out these more immediate neighbours."

The African Union and east African regional body IGAD have both proposed foreign peacekeeping troops, a plan fiercely opposed by the Islamists.

Addis Ababa, which fears a hardline Islamist state on its doorstep, accuses Mogadishu's new rulers of being terrorists. It also worries about their possible aspirations to incorporate ethnic Somali regions such as Ethiopia's Ogaden.

"If we want to keep the Ethiopians out, we need to give some capacity and training to the transitional national authorities if they are going to be under attack," Frazer said, adding Uganda could provide a training force.

Islamists seized Somalia's capital Mogadishu on June 5 and now control a swathe of the south. The government, formed in 2004 in the 14th attempt to bring central rule to the anarchic nation since 1991, is based in the provincial town of Baidoa.

A first round of peace talks between both sides took place in Khartoum, Sudan, in June, but a second round broke down after the government boycotted negotiations in protest at alleged violations of a pact against military expansion.

"SPEAKING WITH TWO VOICES"

Frazer criticised the Somali government for not attending the talks scheduled, saying they had made a "huge mistake" but said the Islamists should not have made territorial advances after a ceasefire was agreed.

"When that was violated, essentially we realised that maybe the Union of Islamic Courts is speaking with two voices," she said.

"Maybe there are those who went to Khartoum and said they respected the transitional federal institutions and government and there may be other elements ... that don't at all."

Frazer called for further talks, slated for this week, but warned that it would be difficult to continue a process with extremists leaning towards confrontation.

"If the extremists and those who are intent on a fight are controlling the dynamic, there's not a choice but to try and defend the TFI...Frankly if extremists want a fight, they are going to find one," Frazer said.

She made the comments after observing Democratic Republic of Congo's first elections in over 40 years, where peaceful polls offered central Africa some hope after a decade of war and massacres.

But Frazer issued a stark warning for the continent's northeastern tip: "As the rest of Africa is moving towards peace the Horn of Africa is disintegrating into chaos."