Prime Minister Meles Zenawi denied his troops, embroiled so profoundly in the conflict they have been unable to pull out, were participating in indiscriminate shooting of civilians, a charge claimed by Somali residents and human rights groups alike.
'The situation there, as hard as it is, could do with less hype and exaggeration,' he told the British broadcaster.
The UN has called Somalia Africa's worst crisis, and has appealed for 400 million dollars in aid for 2008, but Meles said the world body was spreading falsities about the crisis.
'At the moment some UN agencies appear to be doing damage in respect of parroting totally unfounded reports by some agencies without in any way trying to verify the facts,' Meles said.
Meles sent his troops on a US-blessed blitzkrieg one year ago to purge the country of an Islamist group that ruled much of Somalia for the last half of 2006.
He pledged to withdraw his forces as soon as the African Union (AU) was able to send a strong force of 8,000 troops to secure the bullet-scarred capital Mogadishu. Only 1,600 have arrived so far and are largely ineffectual.
But the Ethiopian troops have been bogged down by an Iraq-style insurgency that has kept them shackled to Mogadishu, some of their men killed and dragged through its streets as cheering crowds look on.
Meles said the delayed AU deployment has meant his forces have remained in Somalia 'a lot longer' than expected.
Some 600,000 people have poured out of Mogadishu since the Ethiopians arrived, settling in makeshift camps outside the capital.
Somalia has not had an effective government since the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre by warlords.
SOURCE: DPA, December 20, 2007