MOGADISHU, Dec 8, 2006 (AFP) - Thousands of Somalis on Friday demonstrated in Mogadishu against a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the deployment of regional peacekeepers to support the country's weak government.

As clashes between Islamic fighters and pro-government militia backed by Ethiopian forces raged in central Somalia, around 5,000 demonstrators in the capital vowed to attack the peacekeepers when they enter the country.

"We are here today to show the world that we will not allow any intervention," the security chief of Somalia's powerful Islamist movement, Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Said, told the rally.

"We will fight until we die, otherwise no foreign soldier or peacekeeper should dare step in our country," he added.

The Islamists, who hold sway over much of south and central Somalia, also vowed to continue implementing Sharia law in regions under their control.

"No one will stop us from implementing Sharia law in Somalia," said Ahmed Qare, one of the prominent Somalis who organised the rally.

On Wednesday, the Security Council authorised the deployment of an 8,000-strong east African peacekeeping force in Somalia and eased a 14-year-old arms embargo, drawing warnings of a stepped-up conflict from Islamists.

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