ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The international community must deploy U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia without delay or risk worsening insecurity in the Horn of Africa, the country's prime minister warned on Monday during a visit to Ethiopia.
Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said the U.N. troops wereneeded to replace Ethiopian forces under the terms of a peacedeal reached last month at U.N.-led talks in Djibouti.
"The U.N. and international community must providefinancial support and deploy peacekeepers without delay so thatEthiopian forces would withdraw in accordance with theagreement."
Hussein was speaking at a news conference in the capitalAddis Ababa following a three-day trip to Ethiopia.
The June 9 deal agreed in Djibouti between his interimgovernment and some opposition figures called for the rapiddeployment of a robust U.N. stabilisation force for Somalia.
The deal said that Ethiopian forces should leave Somalisoil within 120 days, but that their withdrawal was conditionalon "sufficient" U.N. troops being deployed before that.
Islamist insurgents inside Somalia and oppositionhardliners have criticised the deal, which has had littleimpact on the ground. The country has had no central rule andhas been in near-perpetual conflict since the 1991 toppling ofa dictator.
Late on Sunday, unknown gunmen in Mogadishu assassinatedthe Somali head of the United Nations Development Programme(UNDP).
(Reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse; Writing by Daniel Wallis;Editing by Matthew Jones)
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