"People will reconcile when regional governments have been established to form a united front against Aidid," Hassan Mohamed Nur, the chairman of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), told visiting journalists on Monday.

The RRA dislodged Aidid fighters from Baidoa on June 6 after fighting them since 1995, when Aidid's father, the late General Mohamed Farah Aidid, seized the town and surrounding villages from local Rahanwein leadership.

"Our challenge is to start the establishment of a regional administration. We are for a federal system," Nur said.

He said the Digil and Mirifle communities in southern and central Somalia, who are also known as the Rahanwein, plan to form their own local government just like their Darod counterparts in northeastern Somalia, who set up an autonomous region known as Puntland last August.

But Nur said war with Aidid was not over yet because forces of the south Mogadishu warlord still occupy parts of Rahanwein territory.

"Our forces are confronting each other in Balidogle (90 kilometres (55 miles)) southwest of Mogadishu," said Nur, who is popularly known as Shatigudud (red shirt). "Our main aim is to liberate all Digil and Mirifle areas. All Somalis have equal rights," he added.

Nur ruled out any reconciliation with Aidid so long as Aidid's fighters were occupying Rahanwein areas.

"Some people have tried to reconcile us, but Aidid is not ready to reconcile. As long as he occupying our territory we are also not ready to reconcile with him," Nur said.

The population of Baidoa is jubilant over Aidid's defeat and chasing of his supporters out of their town, reportedly with the help of Ethiopian troops. The RRA, however, denies that the Ethiopians were involved in the fighting.

Residents say that Aidid's occupation of Baidoa was characterised by killing sprees, looting, rape and vandalism.

Habiba Abdi, a resident of Doynunay, a village about 13 kilometres (eight miles) east of Baidoa, said that on one day five months ago, 200 of Aidid's militiamen descended on the hamlet, shot dead 60 people, and torched homes.

"They believed we were RRA supporters," Abdi said, adding that about 150 families whose huts were burned down now sleep rough under trees and eat wild fruits and leaves to survive.

The gang of marauding gunmen was led by notorious militiaman Farah Barane, said Abdi, 29.

Aden Abdi, another survivor of that attack, showed AFP a healed bullet wound on his back and a swelling above his buttocks where a bullet is still lodged. Another bullet blew off two of his toes.

Aid workers showed reporters a water well allegedly vandalised by Adid's fighters.

Hassan Mohamed Nur, chairman of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), said on Monday his forces were moving on Aideed's positions in Beledoogle, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, and would then aim to take territory along the coastline south of the capital.

``The two fighting groups are on the frontline in the Beledoogle area and we are expecting a confrontation in the near future,'' he told Reuters in the strategic city of Baidoa, which the RRA seized from Aideed with the help of Ethiopia's army in heavy fighting last month.

Mohamed Nur, also known by his nom de guerre ``Shaar-Gudud'' or ``Red Shirt,'' said his militia was intent on capturing all territory inhabited by his Digil-Mirifle clan in the central regions of Bay, Bakool and Lower Shabelle.

``I don't have any other way to solve this problem. The only way is to fight, and I am now on my way to that,'' he said, adding that he was trying to join forces with several other militias in a concerted campaign against Aideed.

The RRA's capture of Baidoa after a four-year guerrilla campaign was a major blow to Aideed, a former U.S. marine whose power base is south Mogadishu.

Mohamed Nur said he was now eyeing the towns of Qoryoley, Brava and Jilib along the fertile coastline south of Mogadishu.

He denied receiving Ethiopian military help in the battle for Baidoa but diplomats, independent military sources and local residents all said the Ethiopians played a key role in seizing the city and still had thousands of troops in the region.

Analysts say Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia to attack Aideed because he supports a small Ethiopian rebel group and he is now being rearmed by Eritrea -- Ethiopia's enemy in a vicious border war.

Somalia has been a lawless state since the fall of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and fighting between rival militias has intensified recently as both Ethiopia and Eritrea pour troops and arms into the country to support their allies.

Before the civil war began, Baidoa was a prosperous and picturesque city in the heart of the country's breadbasket region. Now it is battered and impoverished.

Almost all the buildings in central Baidoa have been either completely destroyed or scarred by artillery and gunfire. Agricultural production has been decimated by a combination of poor rains and relentless violence that has forced thousands of families to flee their homes and farms.

In seizing Baidoa on June 6, Ethiopian and RRA units attacked the town from two sides and forced

Aideed's militiamen to flee, capturing about 50 ``technical'' battlewagons equipped with anti-aircraft guns and some 200 prisoners.

A former factory which served as a base for Aideed's allies was destroyed in heavy artillery fire in the battle.

Dozens of people were killed in the fighting, including several civilians, but the town's new RRA leadership appears to enjoy more support than Aideed's militia, which was widely seen as an occupying force.

The Somalia Aid Coordination Body (SACB), an umbrella group of donor nations, United Nations agencies and aid groups, appealed in a new report for $17.5 million from foreign donors to help stave off a new humanitarian disaster.

About 300,000 people died in a famine in Somalia in 1992.

A new round of fighting, made worse by the military intervention of neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea, has forced people to flee their homes and farms and has disrupted key trade routes, the SACB said.

More money was needed to buy extra food, medical supplies, and water and sanitation equipment, the group said.

As in 1992, the worst-hit areas were the central regions of Bay and Bakool, traditionally Somalia's most fertile and productive, which were suffering from poor seasonal rains and the fallout from conflict between rival militias.

SACB said about 730,000 people were now at risk in Bay, Bakool and Gedo; another 193,000 in the region of Lower Shabelle; 160,000 in Lower Juba and 83,000 in Hiran. Together, those areas make up most of the southwestern third of Somalia.

This year's ``Gu'' rainy season, which runs from April to June and is the country's most important, was a failure and early crop estimates put the key August harvest at about 50 percent of pre-war levels.

``The harvest is not looking good. We suspect that the small harvest (farmers) get now will be gone by October and they'll be in a lousy situation,'' said Lynn Geldof, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF.

Water is also in very short supply with rivers low and water holes drying up fast.

In and around Baidoa, the main city in the Bay region and the focus of heavy fighting in recent weeks, farmers interviewed on Monday complained that their crops had been destroyed by drought and their possessions stolen by the militia.

``They looted our farm, they even stole the camels' milk we were going to sell,'' said Faadumo Maoalim Udug, a mother of seven who left her home last week to lead her camel in search of grazing land.

Nur Ibrein, a 70-year-old farmer in the small village of Daynuuney, said he was unable to look after his land because his home was among dozens burned to the ground by militiamen loyal to warlord Hussein Aideed in an attack four months ago.

``They killed our people, they burned our homes and they destroyed our water,'' Ibrein said, pointing to a nearby water hole where he said Aideed's militia had stolen pump machinery and filled the bore hole with rocks.

Militiamen operating on behalf of the courts attacked several illegal roadblocks in the animal market north of Mogadishu controlled by leading warlord Hussein Aideed.

The courts have already closed dozens of the checkpoints, where the city's various rival militia groups would terrorise local residents and extort money.

Ibrahim Omar Sabriyeh, head of operations for the Islamic courts, told reporters after the operation on Monday that they had removed seven roadblocks from the animal market area.

He said the courts used 10 armoured personnel carriers and 130 armed men in the surprise attack, in which a few bandits suffered gunshot wounds and seven were apprehended.

While not part of any formal governing authority, which collapsed in Somalia in 1991, the Islamic courts are widely regarded as a force for peace in a chaotic land.

The courts are funded mainly by businessmen seeking a more stable environment and welcomed by civilians who are constantly hounded by warlords at checkpoints and elsewhere.

Security operations sponsored by the courts are being carried out at a time when several of the leading warlords, including Aideed, Ali Mahdi Mohamed and Mohamed Qanyareh Afrah, are out of the country.

Ethiopia and Eritrea, its former ally and neighbor in the Horn of Africa, have been at war for 13 months.

The Eritrean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that 1,410 Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin had been deported across the southern Burre front line near the Red Sea port of Assab Monday.

``The deportees included expectant mothers, children, handicapped and gravely ill people,'' the ministry said.

It said a large number of the deportees were Ethiopian citizens with Ethiopian passports who had been arrested and detained for periods ranging between three days and 10 months on ``security grounds.''

Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse confirmed that 3,000 people had been ``repatriated'' to Eritrea in the past two days. She said some had left voluntarily and that all were in good health.

The human rights group Amnesty International said Ethiopia had expelled around 50,000 Eritreans since their border dispute exploded into a full-scale war in May last year.

Ethiopia has in turn accused Eritrea of deportations. Amnesty said over 20,000 people had returned to Ethiopia after losing their jobs in Eritrea.

Eritrea was a province of Ethiopia until 1993, when it won its independence after a 30-year war. Their bitter border conflict has soured a short chapter of close relations.