Africa Media Watch

The Kenyan Foreign Minister, Marsden Madoka, has appealed to the warring sides in Somalia not to turn their back on reconciliation.

"We are appealing to all the factions and the Transitional National Government and any external forces involved in Somalia to cease acting in a way that will hinder the peace process," he told reporters in Nairobi.

According to Kenyan KBC TV on Thursday, he said Ethiopia was still part of the peace process.

"We are all agreed, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, that the situation in Somalia affects all of us, and we have all got to work carefully towards ensuring that the peace process continues."

Ethiopia rejected

This comes after Somali interim President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan sent an official request to have Ethiopia removed from the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) committee - made up of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti - overseeing reconciliation in Somalia.

Ethiopia does not seek the nationhood and unity of Somalia.

Interim President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan

Mr Salat Hasan said the interim government was still ready for talks with opposition factions in Nairobi, but added that "Ethiopia does not seek the nationhood and unity of Somalia", Radio HornAfrik reported on Tuesday.

The state minister at the presidency of the interim government, Husayn Salah Muse, told the Ayaamaha web site on Tuesday that "The Ethiopian Government is absolutely against the formation of a government in Somalia and is against peace in Somalia".

Ethiopia included

Mr Madoka said Kenya would send former Foreign Minister Elijah Mwangale to Somalia next week to prepare the various factions for reconciliation talks planned for next month in Nairobi.

The Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation reported on Friday that Mr Mwangale's delegation would include members from Djibouti and Ethiopia.

All of this comes after Ethiopian troops were reported to have taken the town of Bulo Hawo.

Advance south feared

The pro-interim-government Jubba Valley Alliance, seven kilometres from the town, told the Ruunkinet web site on Thursday that Ethiopian forces intended to move on to capture Baardheere soon, much further south in Gedo province.

The information minister of the transitional government, Ahmad Hashi Mahmud, told Ruunkinet that it was "flagrant military aggression by Ethiopia... aimed at seizing Somali territory".

Speaking to Radio Banaadir on Wednesday, Mr Hashi Mahmud said about a battalion of Ethiopians had captured Bulo Hawo, "committed a massacre against the population", and burned and plundered the market area.

Bulo Hawo razed to the ground.

Runnkinet web site

He said they entered Somalia through the border town of Dolo, and were followed by a battalion of reinforcement via the town of Waajid in south-western Somalia.

The Somali-language Muslim Iqra FM radio station in Kenya said on Wednesday that five people had been killed in the initial Ethiopian assault.

It also said that the Ethiopian-backed Somali Reconstruction and Restoration Council had captured the Gedo regional capital, Garbahaarey, in bloody clashes the previous day.

Ruunkinet said Bulo Hawo was "razed to the ground" by Ethiopian shelling.

The Jubba Valley Alliance said it was putting its troops in the port of Kismaayo on alert against expected attacks by the Ethiopian-backed Somali Reconciliation and Reconstruction Council.

Accusations rejected

The Somali Reconstruction and Restoration Council denied Ethiopian involvement in the attack on Wednesday and claimed the capture of the town for itself.

We strongly deny the cheap lies of the Arta faction which claims that our neighbour, Ethiopia, is involved in the fighting in the region.

SRRC Colonel Yusuf Kaante

Colonel Yusuf Kaante of the SRRC told the anti-interim-government AllPuntland.com web site by telephone that "This development is a big slap in the face for the Arta faction (interim government), which has been engaged in expansionism," he said.

"We strongly deny the cheap lies of the Arta faction which claims that our neighbour, Ethiopia, is involved in the fighting in the region," he added.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.