20100724
reuters

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Britain on Friday threw its weight behind calls for more African troops to be sent to Somalia to battle Islamist rebels, whose suicide attacks in Uganda last week killed 73 people watching the World Cup final.

An African Union (AU) summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala, planned before the attacks, has put the Somali crisis at the top of its agenda and more than 30 African heads of state are under pressure to act on the failed state.

Central to discussions at the summit is the mandate of an AU peacekeeping force of 6,300 troops, which is protecting Somalia's besieged government. Delegates told Reuters a cap of 8,100 on troop levels would likely be lifted during the meeting.

"We certainly welcome an increase in numbers," Britain's minister for Africa, Henry Bellingham, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the summit. "We said yes to (lifting the restriction on troop numbers). Absolutely."

The AU force may also be given permission to attack the rebels -- it can now only fight when engaged. Bellingham warned the move could backfire.

"We are cautious about that because we're worried about possible collateral damage," he said. "We have to balance the military option with the moves that are also afoot to try and find some political progress."

Somalia's near powerless Western-backed government is hemmed into a few streets of the capital Mogadishu. Troops from Uganda and Burundi make up the AU force -- al Shabaab said that was why it attacked Kampala.

Al Shabaab -- meaning "the youth" in Arabic -- controls huge swathes of central and southern Somalia and is fighting to overthrow the government. Last week's bombings were the group's first strike outside Somalia.