(adds quote and details) By Felix Onuah ABUJA, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A battalion of Nigerian soldiers is expected to leave for Somalia in the next two weeks to join a planned African peacekeeping force in that country, Nigeria's defence minister told Reuters on Wednesday. The African Union has proposed sending about 8,000 peacekeepers to Somalia to bolster the interim government after Ethiopian troops complete their pull out from the chaotic country. Defence Minister Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi said the Nigerian battalion, which normally contains between 770 and 1,000 troops, is already undergoing training and waiting for supplies and logistics to move into Somalia. "One battalion is what we are preparing to move immediately for the peacekeeping mission and we hope that within the next two weeks, they will move," Aguiyi-Ironsi told Reuters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja. The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday backed the speedy deployment of an African force in Somalia, which has not known peace for 15 years. Many diplomats consider an African mission the answer to Somalia's myriad problems which defied U.N. and U.S. peacekeepers more than a decade ago. Such a mission is expected to help the interim government of President Abdullahi Yusuf stabilise and pacify the nation since the ouster of Islamists who ruled most of the south for six months before a two-week war in December. Ethiopia has started withdrawing its troops, who provided the military muscle against the Islamists. But there are fears the government, which lacks a national power-base or truly popular support, could implode if that happens and the Ethiopians are not replaced. Nigeria, a major contributing nation to African peace mission, also has troops in Sudan's Darfur region and Liberia. (Writing by Tume Ahemba, editing by Tom Ashby and Mary Gabriel; Lagos newsroom tel: +234 1 463 057))
