At least 1,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government and Islamist forces in Somalia.
At a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi confirmed that his country's military intervention in the neighbouring nation of Somalia had left a further 3,000 wounded.
In June, the Islamic Court Union seized the capital Mogadishu and then extended its control over south and central Somalia.
The weak transitional Somali government currently holds only one major town, Baidoa, in the southern central region.
Somali government forces only began to advance on the powerful Islamist movement after Ethiopian warplanes bombed Mogadishu airport in order to cut supply lines.
Ethiopia has justified its intervention on the grounds that the Islamists represent a direct threat to its own security and sovereignty.
