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Ethiopian military forces have crossed back into Somalia, barely three months after leaving, witnesses told the BBC.Their reported return comes as Islamist militants like al-Shabab continue to seize towns from the fragile Western-back transitional government.

The Ethiopian army withdrew in January after UN-backed peace talks. Its troops entered Somalia in 2006 to help oust Islamist forces from the capital Mogadishu.

On Sunday, Islamist militias took the key town of Jowhar from government forces. This is the home town of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and now that the country's rainy season has arrived, the town is also the only passable route into central Somalia from the capital.

Members of al-Shabab, a group fighting government forces in Somalia, seized the town of Jowhar on Sunday morning.

Jowhar was in 2005 chosen as the temporary location for the country's transitional government.

The Somali government has been losing ground in recent weeks and now controls little more than the centre of the capital, with the support of African Union troops.