LAGOS, (insidesomalia.org) - Nigeria will deploy a battalion of soldiers to Somalia in the next few weeks as part of an African Union peacekeeping force, a defence spokesman said on Thursday.

"We are sending a battalion of 850 officers and soldiers to Somalia," Brigadier General Emeka Onwuamaegbu said.

 "Right now the unit is putting finishing touches to their departure. We are hoping the troops will leave in the next few weeks," he said by telephone from the capital Abuja.

Onwuamaegbu said the initial plan was for the troops, who will help an under-strength AU force support Somalia's U.N.-backed interim government in its struggle against Islamist rebels, to leave for Mogadishu by the end of August.

Fighting in Somalia has killed thousands of civilians and displaced about a million since early last year, worsening a humanitarian crisis already sown by drought, soaring food prices and rampant inflation.

The current EU force, made up of 1,600 Ugandan soldiers and 600 Burundians, has been unable to stem the chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.

Nigeria's contribution will still leave the force, known as AMISOM, far below its planned size of 8,000 troops. A shortage of funds and the violence raging in Mogadishu have prompted several nations to reconsider their offers of troops.

AMISOM was meant to replace Ethiopian troops whose presence inflamed the insurgency because they helped Somalia's government dislodge an Islamist movement at the start of 2007.

But its small size has restricted the AU force to securing the capital's air and sea ports and a strategic junction, and guarding President Abdullahi Yusuf, senior government officials and visiting delegates.

Nigeria has sent peacekeepers into several war zones around the world's poorest continent, including Sudan's Darfur region, Sierra Leone and Liberia, bolstering its status as a major power in Africa.