African Union troops have still not deployed o­nto the streets

The Ugandan army, which arrived in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in March, says it has not received money promised to it by the AU since its deployment.

An AU spokesman told the BBC that peace troops had to sustain themselves, after which the AU would reimburse them.

Assnae Ba said the AU so far had pledges of $35m to fund the mission.

But some $200m was needed to fund a six month deployment of 8,000 troops to Somalia.

So far however, o­nly some 1,700 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu as the advance party.

Burundi, which is expected to provide 1,700 troops, says they are ready to leave, but there is no money to send them.

AU FORCE IN SOMALIA Uganda: 1,700 Nigeria: 850 Burundi: 1,700 Ghana: unconfirmed

"Of course ther are some delays in the sense that we just signed an agreement with the European Union which have pledged 15m euros (about $20m) around 10 days ago," Mr Ba, spokesperson for the AU's department for peace and security, told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said Italy had pledged a further 10m euros ($13.5m), but he hoped for more money.

"We don't have all the troops o­n the ground so we can't talk of a shortfall," he said.

The African peacekeepers are intended to replace Ethiopian troops which helped the interim government oust Islamists in December.