Heavy fighting has broken out in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, between government forces backed by Ethiopian troops and armed insurgents.

A BBC correspondent says seven people were killed in the battle, the heaviest since the Islamists fell last year.

He says there has been a dramatic escalation in attacks against government targets in recent weeks.

Some 1,200 African Union troops have been deployed to Mogadishu this month to try and bring stability to the city.

Dozens have been killed during insurgent attacks in Mogadishu in the past two and a half months, which the government blames on remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Ethiopian troops, who have been in the city since December supporting Somali forces loyal to the transitional government, have been gradually handing over responsibilities to the AU force.

Signal

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says armed masked men confronted the government and Ethiopian forces on patrol.

Unconfirmed reports say an Ethiopian soldier is among the dead.

Somalia enjoyed a six-month lull in the insecurity that had dogged the country for the past 16 years when the UIC took power last year.

But insecurity has returned to the city and the UN estimates some 40,000 people have fled from Mogadishu since February.

Our correspondent says the escalation in attacks comes at a time when the government says it plans to hold a national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu in April.

Insurgents may want to signal that the city is not safe to hold the meeting, he says.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Ugandan soldier prepares a tank for shipment to Somalia at the port of Mombasa in the Kenyan coast, some 480 km (298 miles) southeast of the capital Nairobi, March 8, 2007.

BBC