Somali government close to collapse as Islamists take palace

The developments came just hours after the British Government in London gave its unequivocal backing to the transitional government of President Abdullahi Yusuf and declared that leading members of the Islamist movement should be persona non grata in any future coalition.

The Foreign Office minister Lord Triesman also insisted that the Government had "no knowledge" of Ethiopian troops being in Somalia - despite widespread eyewitness reports of them taking over strategic towns in the country.

While the West has been backing the transitional government, which holds no sway in Mogadishu and has little power outside the town of Baidoa, there is also an international arms embargo in place, depriving the same government of legally acquiring arms. The US has also been backing warlords outside the government which have been trying unsuccessfully to defeat the Islamists.

The ministers who resigned from the cabinet said they objected to Ethiopian troops entering Somalia, purportedly to protect the government from the Islamists. Ahmed Abdirahman Mohamed, deputy minister of higher education, said: "The government was taking orders from Ethiopia. Somalis can now have an opportunity to reconstitute their government."

The ministers also accused the Prime Minister, Ali Mohammed Ghedi, of being "an obstacle to progress", and stated that he and his allies "cannot carry out national reconciliation and development".

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