Guinea sends peacekeepers to Somalia

African Union announced on Friday that Guinea is ready to send a battalion of force to Somalia to join the AMISOM mission in that country. "We have today a full commitment with Guinea for a battalion," AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping told reporters in Kampala.

It is the first pledge made at the AU summit in Uganda, where more than 30 head of states are discussing Somalia issues as the top agenda of the summit.

"We are going to quickly top the 8,000 mark... I think the current trend could take us over 10,000," Ping said.

There are currently more than 6,000 troops in the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which was first deployed in 2007 and currently consists only of Ugandan and Burundian soldiers.

The regional leaders have already agreed to send 2000 troops to complete the 8000 troops the African Union promised to send to Somalia in 2008.

They also recommended that an additional 20,000 peacekeeping force from UN should be sent to Somalia, where Al-Qaeda linked group, who claimed the responsibility of serious attacks at Kampala, controls most.

AU had already requested Djibouti, Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia.

Somali government are battling with Al-Qaeda-inspired Al-shabaab fighters who run most of southern Somalia and government controls a few areas in the capital Mogadishu, where Uganda and Burundi sent 5,000- strong peacekeepers.