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MOGADISHU, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government voted on Wednesday to support a U.S. proposal that would let east African peacekeepers deploy in the violent state, but the rival Islamist movement said that would trigger a war.
Diplomats say Washington will soon unveil a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution that would lift an arms embargo to let regional troops legally enter Somalia with their weapons.
Somali lawmakers, confined to provincial Baidoa town because of rapid territorial gains by the militarily superior Islamists, voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to support the plan.
"This resolution will pave the way for regional peacekeepers to help the transitional federal government stabilise and bring peace to the country," member of parliament Abdirashid Adan Gabyow told Reuters by telephone after casting his vote.
The proposed U.N. resolution has prompted a lively debate about whether it would help stabilise Somalia, as the U.S. and Britain hope, or cause a broader conflict, as European Union experts and a major international think-tank have suggested.
The Islamists -- who threaten the government's authority after seizing the capital Mogadishu and much of the south in June -- bitterly oppose foreign fighters operating in Somalia.
"The whole world knows the passage of this resolution will bring nothing but war," Ibrahim Hassan Addow, the Islamists' foreign affairs chief, told Reuters in Mogadishu.
He said it was aimed at legitimising the presence of thousands of Ethiopian troops the Islamists and diplomats say are in the country to prop up the Western-backed government.
And he said if it was approved by the United Nations, it would spell the end of stalled peace talks between the two sides.
"The Americans will bear the responsibility," he said.
At a rally of thousands of protesters in the capital on Tuesday, one top Islamist leader said their forces had exchanged artillery fire with Ethiopian troops at a key central town.
There was no independent confirmation of the reported clash, 700 km (435 miles) north of Mogadishu. Ethiopia denies sending troops, but says it has several hundred military trainers there.
Analysts fear an all-out confrontation between the government and Islamists could spiral into a wider regional war, sucking in neighbouring countries. (Additional reporting by Hassan Yare in Mogadishu)
Source: Reuters, Nov 29, 2006