NAIROBI, Feb 27: Influential warlords in Somalia on Sunday rejected the possible deployment of troops from Ethiopia and Djibouti as part of a regional mission to help the country's transitional government set foothold after relocating from exile in Kenya.

"We endorse the deployment of troops from the international community without the involvement of contingents from Somalia's immediate neighbours," Ethiopia and Djibouti, they said in a statement released in Nairobi after overnight talks.

The stern statement was signed by warlords Hussein Mohamed Aidid, also deputy premier, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, minister of national security, Musa Sudi Yalahow, minister of trade, Botan Isse, minister for demobilization and Omar Mohamud "Finnish", minister for religious affairs.

The warlords from the dominant Hawiye clan who control the capital Mogadishu, said they planned to visit the bullet-scarred city to flush out gunmen roaming there who have vowed to oppose the deployment of foreign troops.

The warlords said they agreed to surrender parts they controlled in Mogadishu to the transitional government, which is still holed up in Kenya owing to insecurity in Somalia.

Early this month, African Union authorized the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which groups Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, to deploy an interim peace mission in Somalia ahead of a proper AU force.

Some Somalis have accepted the deployment of regional troops but not inclusion of soldiers from Ethiopia, which they accuse of backing various factions and Djibouti of supporting the predecessor to President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's government.

Kenya, which is home to thousands of Somali refugees, is accused of having dubious political interests in Somalia, but Nairobi has said it would only send military observers. Ethiopia and Uganda have offered to send troops, with other IGAD nations are yet to decide.

But some Somali clans and Islamic court leaders have vowed to resist the deployment of foreign troops in the shattered African nation which has been without a functioning government since the fall of strongman Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.

On Friday, President Yusuf, while touring Somalia on a fact-finding mission, said the deployment of AU troops would go ahead despite opposition from some "elements who are relentlessly fighting against" peace and the government.

He insisted that Mogadishu would remain the country's capital despite rampant insecurity and threats to resist peacekeepers in the Somali capital. In recent weeks, there have been several deadly attacks - the fatal shooting of a BBC journalist and a roadside bombing that narrowly missed a visiting AU delegation - that analysts believe were warnings against outside intervention. -AFP