Ethiopian government troops moved into a second town in Somalia on Saturday in support of the UN-backed government, according to United Nations officials and aid workers.

About 200 Ethiopian troops, driving pickup trucks mounted with machine-guns, moved into Wajid, a UN base about 80 kilometres southeast of the Somali-Ethiopian border.

somalia baidoa

Ethiopian troops entered Somalia on Thursday to protect the UN-backed government, which is fighting a civil war with Islamic militants.

About 400 Ethiopian soldiers in armoured cars entered Baidoa, 240 kilometres northwest of the capital of Mogadishu, while another 200 soldiers went to Wajid.

They did not meet any resistance.

Islamic militants are mainly in southern Somalia. They have also captured Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu and consolidated their control over most of southern Somalia.

Both sides signed a temporary ceasefire agreement on June 22, but the Islamists walked out of the talks Saturday after Ethiopian troops took over Baidoa.

"The Somali government has violated the accord and allowed Ethiopian troops to enter Somali soil," said Abdirahman Janaqaw, the deputy leader of the Islamic courts' executive council.

Both Ethiopian and Somali government officials have denied Ethiopian troops are in the country.

"There is not a single Ethiopian solider on Somali soil. I deny that the Ethiopians have taken control of Wajid. Our troops control there," Deputy Information Minister Salad Ali Jeeley told the Associated Press in Baidoa, where the transitional government is based.