A spokesman for one wing of the Somali National Front said his faction retook the towns of Garbaharey and Burdobo late on Wednesday after launching a series of attacks on Ethiopian forces.

The SNF lost three fighters in the battle for the towns, both in Gedo region, while 10 others sustained gunshot wounds, said SNF spokesman Ibrahim Jama Howleh at a news conference in the capital.

Two Ethiopians were killed in an ambush at Burdobo and another was captured, Howleh said. Ethiopian troops withdrew to Luq, a Somali town formerly the stronghold of the Islamic fundamentalist Al-Itihad militia.

The SNF would only agree a ceasefire once they had ejected Ethiopia from Luq, Bulo Hawo and Dolow, all effectively occupied by Ethiopia in support of a Somali faction.

A column of Ethiopian armoured vehicles rolled across the border into the two districts of Gedo region on Monday in another sign that Ethiopia and Eritrea have effectively opened up a new front within Somalia in their year-long border war.

Analysts say Ethiopia is attempting to clear the border area of Ethiopian rebels and Somali factions, which have been supplied with arms by Eritrea.

Witnesses contacted by high frequency radio in the area on Thursday offered a contradictory story about the two towns and said Ethiopia withdrew from the towns without any trouble.

Somalia has been without central government since 1991, when rival clans overthrew late dictator Siad Barre.

Despite strong evidence that Ethiopia and Eritrea are fighting a proxy war in Somalia, both sides deny they have an active military presence there.

Kenya's army said it would hit back hard unless the stolen guns, trucks and equipment are returned by midday on Thursday.

``Representations have been made to the Somali warlords in the area to return the looted items by midday July 1, 1999,'' the Department of Defence said in a statement. Failure to meet the deadline would result in a ``robust military action.''

``We are not happy about it at all,'' spokesman Nicholas Simani told Reuters. ``We will go and get the looted equipment unless they give it back.''

He said the Somali militiamen were backed up with eight battle wagons that are typically mounted with anti-aircraft guns. They forced the army patrol to hand over weapons and equipment in the attack on Wednesday evening near a military camp at Liboi.

Nobody was injured as the Kenyan army patrol, made up of an estimated 25 soldiers, handed over the guns without a fight.

``When you see 400 and you are a small number, you give in,'' Simani said, adding that it was not clear which militia was responsible for the attack.

Kenya's army has boosted its presence on the Somali border in recent weeks as a new surge of fighting between rival factions and their foreign allies inside Somalia has raised tensions and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Hundreds of Somali civilians have crossed the border seeking assistance at refugee camps in Kenya. Somalia has been without central government since 1991 and is divided into warring fiefdoms.

There has been a sharp increase in fighting in recent weeks as neighbouring Ethiopia and Eritrea are using rival Somali factions to open a new front in their own border war.

Ethiopia has deployed troops inside Somalia to clear its border area of Ethiopian rebels and those Somali militias being supplied with arms by Eritrea.