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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme must immediately stop importing relief rations to Somalia, hardline rebels said on Wednesday, accusing the aid agency of devastating local agriculture.

Al Shabaab insurgents control most of the south of the drought-ravaged country, where fighting has worsened one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises. Washington says the group is al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of Africa nation.

WFP is a major player in the international response to the emergency. Experts say 3.76 million people -- or half the Somali population -- now need aid, and that three-quarters of those are concentrated in central and southern regions.

But in a statement, al Shabaab's self-styled Office for the Supervision of the Affairs of Foreign Agencies said imports by the U.N. organisation had become a barrier to Somalia's self-sufficiency.

"It has been decided that WFP must immediately refrain from bringing food rations from outside Somalia and rather purchase food from Somali farmers and then that food will be distributed to the needy," the statement said.

"The bringing of immense quantities of free food rations, specifically during the harvest season, has been devastating to the agriculture industry in Somalia and has greatly discouraged the Somali people from the agricultural trade."

The rebels said all local businesspeople contracted by WFP must terminate those contracts before January 1, 2010, and that WFP must empty its warehouses and food stocks by the same date.

"WFP is working in Somalia because the country cannot currently support the food needs of its population," a WFP spokesman said in neighbouring Kenya.