Mogadishu - The African Union has agreed to keep its peacekeeping force in Somalia for a further two months.

But the AU's peace and security council appeared to make little progress on the problem of replacing Ethiopian troops when they leave at the end of the year.

Ethiopia has rejected pleas to phase its withdrawal in co-ordination with the arrival of fresh forces.

The AU force already in Mogadishu is too small to resist resurgent Islamist and nationalist fighters.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week rejected calls for UN peacekeepers to be sent.

He said the situation in Somalia was too dangerous and there was no peace to keep.

And he said the organisation, at its meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, had "reiterated its appeal to member states to furnish the necessary troops" to the peacekeeping mission.

The AU force currently comprises 3,400 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi - limited to parts of Mogadishu and the central town of Baidoa, where parliament is based.

The UN envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, on Monday described the country's problem as a "problem for the whole region".

Fighting between pro-government forces and Islamist militias has led more than a million people to flee their homes.

The lack of an effective government has led to the rise of piracy off the Somali coast.

Aid agencies say some three million people need food aid - about a third of the population - but attacks by pirates and militias make it extremely difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance.