ADDIS ABABA, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A third of Ethiopia's troops in Somalia are expected to have withdrawn by Sunday, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said.
"We are reducing troop numbers by about a third ... that process should be completed today or tomorrow," Meles told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.
He refused to say how many troops had been in the country during a war to oust Islamists who ruled southern Somalia for six months.
Security experts estimated before the lightning two-week Christmas war that Ethiopia had sent between 5,000 and 10,000 troops into Somalia to back forces of the weak transitional government.
Meles said he hoped to withdraw the rest of Ethiopia's troops "within weeks".
Asked if he was confident that could be done, Meles said "Yes, because ... as far as our own mission is concerned it has been completed as far as supporting the transitional government."
He said Ethiopian troops would continue backing the government "as long as we can sustain it but we cannot sustain it indefinitely, obviously, and therefore we can only assist to the extent of our capabilities".
Meles spoke before an African Union summit on Monday and Tuesday which is expected to discuss the deployment of almost 8,000 African peacekeeping troops in Somalia to avoid a vacuum after Ethiopia withdraws.
Without a strong military force, many residents and analysts fear the Horn of Africa country will slide back into the anarchy it suffered for nearly 16 years.
Meles said the AU was suggesting deploying its troops by early March, but added: "We see no reason why the first African Union troops could not be deployed significantly earlier, let's say by mid-February."
Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi have so far promised soldiers for Somalia and others are mulling, though Rwanda and South Africa have ruled it out.
