Shelling in northern neighbourhoods continued early in the morning, only hours after the bodies of 17 civilians were hastily buried in improvised cemeteries on the edge of the war-battered city.

"Two women were selling mint and tried to cross a road" in the northern Arafat neighbourhood, said witness Muhubo Hersi. "They were caught in the crossfire and both died on the spot," she said.

"There was a lot of shelling in our neighbourhood and three artillery shells landed on a house very close to mine," Hersi went on. "Nobody was killed because nobody lived in this house, the people have fled."

The Ethiopian information ministry said its troops, alongside Somali forces, have killed 75 insurgents, captured four others in the outskirts of Mogadishu on Thursday.

In a statement, whose claims could not be confirmed, it added that "a number of rebels managed to escape. Ethiopian casualties were minimal".

The joint force captured five vehicles, including two trucks mounted with machine guns, and a third truck was destroyed.

Ethiopia also blamed the rebels for mortar attacks that killed 12 people in the capital's Bakara market on Thursday, making it the bloodiest day in December.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the intense fighting that has plagued Mogadishu in recent months.

Although no accurate figures are available, thousands of people are believed to have died and more than 600,0000 have fled the city since February to find shelter with family elsewhere in Somalia or in camps for the displaced.

Six of the city's 16 districts have been almost completely emptied but some civilians remained trapped in central Mogadishu, their movements impeded by hundreds of rogue checkpoints and with scarce access to food and sanitation.

With no political solution in sight, Ethiopian-backed government troops and Islamist insurgents continue to battle it out in the streets of the seaside capital.

Aid groups have warned that one of the world's worst food crises is unfolding in Mogadishu and its surroundings and complained of utter disregard for basic humanitarian principles on the part of all the belligerents.

Violence in the lawless country has defied numerous initiatives aimed at restoring peace and stability in the Horn of Africa nation since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Uganda has deployed 1,600 African Union peacekeepers to Somalia, but the contingent remains far short of the 8,000 troops pledged by the continental body and has failed to stem the bloodshed.

The AU's new special representative to Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira, nevertheless announced Friday that the first battalion of Burundian soldiers would arrive by year's end and more troops from Nigeria early next year.

Bwakira, who met new Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, told reporters at Mogadishu airport that he had urged the government to negotiate with the opposition.

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