ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi urged the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to finance an African Union (AU) peacekeeping deployment to Somalia, so his troops can withdraw.
Meles deployed his military to help the interim Somali government -- which he has closely advised and helped shape -- defeat a militant Islamist movement in a war over the New Year.
Since seizing control of the capital Mogadishu in late December, Ethiopian and Somali troops have fought insurgents and are increasingly facing guerrilla-style attacks that have borrowed tactics from Iraq like suicide bombings.
"I hope the Security Council will back the AU in financial terms so that additional peacekeeping troops would be deployed in Somalia," Meles said at a news conference.
"We hope and expect that the Security Council would understand the financial burden Ethiopia is shouldering and help relive the burden."
Meles made his comments ahead of a meeting on Monday where members of the Security Council are due to hold discussions on Somalia and Sudan's Darfur crisis with the African Union at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
Burundi is next on a short list of African countries who have pledged troops to the envisioned 8,000-strong force, but so far only Uganda has sent peacekeepers into Somalia.
Its contingent of 1,600 soldiers has already been attacked by insurgents in Mogadishu.
Meles has said for months he wanted to pull his troops out because of the expense of fielding a combat operation in the neighbouring Horn of Africa nation, where Ethiopians have been viewed as rivals of Somalis for centuries.
Their presence has greatly complicated reconciliation negotiations, and some parties including backers of the militant Islamist group and Somali nationalists have said any true peace will only come after Ethiopian soldiers leave.
The government is due to hold a national reconciliation conference on Thursday, but few expect it to start on time because of the shaky security situation in the coastal capital.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi escaped a fourth attempt on his life earlier this month when a suicide bomber struck his house and killed seven people. Similar attacks are on the rise.
Ethiopian soldiers have stayed in Somalia to protect the interim government, under Western pressure not to pull out and leave it exposed. But money has been slow to come.
The African Union peacekeeping operation in Darfur is also underfunded and now is moving toward a bigger hybrid force with U.N. troops. That, diplomats say, is stretching already limited funds for peacekeeping.
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