KIGALI, July 2, 2008 (AFP) - A decision to send Rwandan soldiers to contribute to the Africa Union's peacekeeping effort in Somalia will be made by the end of 2008, Rwandan army spokesman Jill Rutaremara told AFP Wednesday.

'The number of troops to be deployed in Somalia is a decision that will be made at the highest level and it won't be delayed further than the end of 2008,' Rutaremara said.

This is the first time a senior Rwanda military or political official has said publicly that the central African nation would send troops to war-torn Somalia.

The AU currently has some 2,600 peacekeepers deployed in the lawless Horn of Africa nation, a contingent which falls far short of the 8,000 soldiers pledged by the continental body in 2006.

Uganda was the first country to contribute troops and Burundi dispatched its own forces earlier this year.

The AU as well as the federal transitional government in Somalia have repeatedly urged AU member countries to contribute more troops to the embattled peacekeeping force.

'Rwandan troops are sufficiently well prepared and trained to take part in peacekeeping missions in conflict zones in Africa and the rest of the world,' Rutaremara said.

'But there are still problems linked to the lack of logistics which need to be solved for this mission to be performed,' he added.

Rwanda had previously expressed reservations about dispatching troops to Somalia but it had trained small groups of Somali government soldiers on a military base in the northeast of the country.