MOGADISHU, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister swept into Mogadishu in an armoured convoy on Friday a day after his Ethiopian-backed forces drove Islamist rivals from the city they had ruled by sharia law since June.

Ali Mohamed Gedi's arrival in a 22-car convoy, including six pick-ups mounted with heavy weaponry, crowned a dramatic turnaround in the Horn of Africa country after an Ethiopian invasion by land and air to combat the Islamists.

Crowds lined the streets of the bullet-scarred coastal capital as the Western-backed interim government's prime minister drove in smiling and waving.

However, the welcome was not universal. In a northern part of the city, hundreds of protesters took to the streets and threw stones at Ethiopian army trucks.

Gedi went to the international airport where Ethiopian tanks sat beside the runway, before heading to the sea port, where Somali government troops stood guard on streets outside.

"We were fighting for our political survival but with the will and the support of the people we are the winners," Gedi told reporters. "We are here to start our work."

Asked how long he would stay in Mogadishu, the man who nearly lost his job in a no-confidence vote just a few months ago said: "I will stay forever. This is the capital city."

Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf may have a tough task to establish their authority given that the Islamist leaders remain in the southern city of Kismayu and are promising resistance.

The government also depends almost entirely on Ethiopia for its military muscle, analysts say, and it was far from clear what would happen if or when they leave.

More than 150 people were presumed dead on Friday after two boats of would-be migrants fleeing Somalia capsized off the coast of Yemen, the United Nations refugee agency said.

The incident happened late on Wednesday. A number of the Somali survivors said they were fleeing fighting between government forces and the Islamists.

Government forces and their Ethiopian allies took control of the former U.S. embassy on Friday before spreading out across Mogadishu to secure key locations ahead of Gedi's arrival.

At a former police base in the city, the joint force hoisted Somalia's pale blue flag over the gate in place of a black one with Arabic script that had been flown by the Islamists.

Ethiopian troops outside flashed the thumbs-up and smiled at residents from a military truck carrying an anti-aircraft gun.

GUERRILLA WAR FEARS

In the north of the city, Ethiopian army trucks drove on without responding to a barrage of stones. The demonstrators set fire to tyres in the road and chanted anti-Ethiopian slogans.

"I am against these infidels coming to my country," said 21-year-old protester Ubah Mohamed, who was wearing a veil. "We will even go as far as to become suicide bombers," she said, as a group of young men standing around her noisily agreed.

Asked how long Ethiopian troops would remain in Somalia, Gedi said: "They will stay until we send them back to their country." Many fear a guerrilla war by the Islamists.

Government forces backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets took effective control of Mogadishu on Thursday after a 10-day offensive to reclaim much of the territory seized by the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) since June.

"We are here to stay," said one Somali soldier. "We will not leave. It has taken us a lot of effort to capture Mogadishu."

The takeover of the former U.S. mission was a highly symbolic move, given that it was abandoned more than a decade ago in a humiliating U.S. retreat from Somalia following an ill-fated mission depicted in the film "Black Hawk Down".

Gedi's parliament plans to declare three months' martial law to maintain control of a nation without an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of a dictator.

The Islamists had in recent months extended their control across the south imposing strict sharia rule and confining the interim government to its base in the provincial town of Baidoa.

Washington, which says the Islamists are supported by al Qaeda, has tacitly supported Ethiopia's intervention, while Eritrea backed the Islamists, analysts and diplomats say. (Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed and Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Hassan Yare in Baidoa)

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