A Somali warlord forced out of Mogadishu last month has surrendered to Islamic leadership that now controls the bullet-riddled capital, an Islamic official confirmed on Monday.

Omar Mohamed Mohamud Finish, one of the warlords defeated in the battle for the control of the Somali capital surrendered with 100 fighters and several armed pick-up trucks, said an official from the Islamic courts who sought anonymity in Nairobi.

Finish had been holed up in north Mogadishu after his associates had fled Mogadishu. The warlord, who was religious affairs minister in the Somali transitional government until he was sacked for his role in the Mogadishu battle, has promised to set up a new Islamic court in the Madina district he used to control.

Meanwhile, Somalia's interim Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi has categorically denied reports that Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia, or the town of Baidoa, where the country's fledgling government is based.

This is the second time in the past two weeks tensions in the Horn of Africa have escalated over unconfirmed reports that Ethiopian troops have crossed into Somalia.

"There are no foreign troops in Somalia, and in Baidoa, as well," Gedi said.

"There are no Ethiopian troops in Somalia and Baidoa. These rumors are originating from opportunists, who are trying to createa clash between Somalia and our neighbors," Gedi added.

Ethiopia also has denied it has crossed the border into Somalia, saying it has deployed troops, but only along the border to defend against what it calls provocative actions by the Islamists in Mogadishu.

After capturing the capital early last month, hard-liners within the Islamic courts recently consolidated power over the moderates, and named Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys to head their legislative arm.

Somalis, tired after 15 years without an effective national government, are concerned about a possible new conflict between Islamist and secular forces in their country.

The United States fears that the Islamists could provide a new base for al-Qaida as regional experts went to Somalia on Monday for talks with the government in their base of Baidoa, 200 km from Mogadishu.

It was not clear whether the experts team from seven member regional bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union (AU) will also travel to Mogadishu for talks with the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), which controls much of southern Somalia.

The United States and others accuse the Islamists of harboring extremists, including al-Qaida members held responsible for the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, a charge denied by Aweys and others.

In an audiotape posted to an Islamic website on Saturday, Osamabin Laden came out against the deployment of foreign peacekeepers in Somalia and vowed resistance to them.

But Aweys has reportedly said bin Laden's weekend message to Somali Islamists "has nothing to do with us."

Aweys dismissed having any links to al-Qaida and again said that Ethiopian troops had already been sent to Somalia and were in the government's seat of Baidoa.

"The statement made by Osama has nothing to do with us. Muslimsshare common emotions and maybe he felt like this could help Muslims who have problems today and so he made this statement," Aweys reportedly said.

He urged Somalis to unite against "the enemy number one of the Somali people," apparently referring to Ethiopia.

The United States, whose disastrous attempt to pacify Somalia in the early 1990s was captured in the book and film "Black Hawk Down", has ruled out any contact with Aweys, whom the UN has linked to al-Qaida.

The AU on Sunday renewed its support for regional peacekeepers to be sent to Somalia, a deployment Aweys and other Islamists have pledged in the past to fight.

There was no indication given on the size of a possible force as the AU summit came to a conclusion in Banjul, Gambia late Sunday.

Somalia was plunged into lawlessness in 1991 after the ousting of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre and the nation of some 10 million was then divided into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by unruly warlords.

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2006)