Ethiopia agrees to Somalia pullback deal

Ethiopia's foreign ministry on Monday vowed to comply with a UN-sponsored deal signed a day earlier by rival Somali factions for a phased withdrawal of Ethiopian troops in Somalia.
"We will respect this encouraging decision reached by the transitional government of Somalia and the ARS (Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia)," Wahide Belay, a foreign ministry spokesman, told AFP.
"The agreement is in line with the Ethiopian position on orderly troop withdrawal," he said.
The Somali government and moderate Islamist opposition, the ARS, on Sunday agreed to implement a dormant ceasefire reached in June, paving the way for pro-government Ethiopian troops to pull back from the country.
According to the agreement reached at UN-mediated talks in Djibouti, Ethiopian forces are to start pulling back from positions in Mogadishu and the garrison town of Beledweyne on November 21, leaving the areas under control of African Union peacekeepers.
According to the deal, the Somalia government and the ARS are to assemble a 10,000-strong police force to help the peacekeepers control the areas.