ASMARA, Eritrea May 4 (Garowe Online) - The Eritrean government has rejected accusations that it has imported weapons to Somalia, Radio Garowe reports.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdow told reporters Monday that the Eritrean government wants peace and security restored in Somalia.

"First of all, there is no government we recognize in Somalia and we will not respond to a faction claiming to be a government," the Eritrean Information Minister said, referring to the UN-endorsed Government of National Unity in Somalia.

He indicated that the Eritrean government "does not support any faction in Somalia" and pledged Eritrean government support to help end the 19-year Somali civil war.

Col. Omar Hashi, the Somali security minister, told a Sunday press conference in the capital Mogadishu that planeloads of weapons from Eritrea "landed illegally" in Lower Shabelle region, which is under the control of Al Shabaab hardliners.

"Planeloads of weapons and ammunition landed at Baledogle [airstrip in Lower Shabelle] and this is intended to destabilize Somalia," Security Minister Hashi said yesterday, alleging that the planes originated from Eritrea.

Also Monday, Somali Air Transport Minister Ali Ahmed "Jangeli" responded to the Eritrean government's refusal to the recognize Somalia's Government of National Unity.

"The Somali Government has more recognition than Eritrea, because that country is ruled by dictators who are disconnected from the world community," Jengeli said.

Somali Security Minister Hashi was part of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) that was founded in Eritrea in Sept. 2007.

The ARS divided into two separate factions last year, with Hashi joining the camp that entered into UN-backed peace talks with the Somali government and concluded with the election of Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as Somali president in January.

Renewed allegations of Eritrea importing weapons into Somalia come weeks after Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the leader of the ARS faction that rejected the peace process, returned to Somalia after spending more than two years exiled in Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea, two Horn of Africa rivals, have often been accused of supporting various factions in Somalia since the outbreak of the civil war in 1991.

Source: Garowe Online