A Somali policeman guards the airport during a visit to Mogadishu of top U.N. envoy to Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall, January 18, 2007. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU, January 19, 2007 – At least two mortars slammed into Somalia's presidential palace on Friday night as explosions and gunfire rocked Mogadishu in the latest outbreak of violence in chaotic Somalia, witnesses and officials said.

"I can confirm two mortars have hit Villa Somalia," a senior government source told Reuters, of the building where President Abdillahi Yusuf stays. "We do not have word yet if there were casualties or not."

Yusuf arrived in Mogadishu days ago to take up residence in the bullet and mortar-scarred building but it was not yet known if the 72-year-old former soldier was there during the attack.

More than a dozen explosions boomed across Mogadishu and gunfire rattled out to break a lull in the violence of several days in the coastal capital of the Horn of Africa nation.

"I have heard more than a dozen explosions ... now there is gunfire," said Reuters reporter Sahal Abdulle.

Ethiopian troops, who helped the Somali interim government drive Islamists out of Mogadishu over the New Year, have in past days been the target of attacks from unknown groups.

Suspicion has fallen on remnants of the defeated Islamists, who vowed to launch guerrilla strikes against the Ethiopians whom they regard as illegitimate occupiers of Somalia.

Two former Islamists told Reuters earlier on Friday they had infiltrated Mogadishu again and planned to attack Villa Somalia and other targets

In the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, an African Union (AU) mission to Somalia recommended that it send peacekeepers for six months before handing over to the United Nations.

Diplomats see international peacekeepers as the only way to stabilize Somalia once Ethiopian troops return home.

But with Uganda the only country to pledge troops publicly, funding uncertain and African politicians wary of a messy engagement in a nation in anarchy since 1991, many think it will be a difficult task to muster such a force.

U.N. MISSION

An AU commission that visited Mogadishu in recent days recommended a 7,650-soldier force, or nine infantry battalions of 850 each, be deployed to Somalia "as soon as possible".

"The mission should be deployed for a period of six months ... with a clear understanding that the mission will evolve to a United Nations mission," the commission report said.

Fresh from a trip to Mogadishu, the U.N. envoy to Somalia joined AU officials in Ethiopia. "I see a small window opening for peace and reconciliation," said Francois Lonseny Fall who met Yusuf in Mogadishu on Thursday.

"The city is under the control of the government. Warlords have continued to disarm," Fall said, adding that the United Nations would aid AU peacekeeping efforts.

European Union foreign ministers are set to offer 15 million euros to AU peacekeepers but will also, at a meeting on Monday, voice concern over this week's ouster of Somalia's parliamentary speaker who was deemed pro-Islamist, diplomats said.

"The EU will say it remains concerned by the current state of the reconciliation process," an EU official said.

"It is of the utmost importance to ensure that all key stakeholders, including clan elders, Islamic leaders, representatives of the business community, civil society and women, are engaged," a draft text agreed by EU envoys says.

The region's main military power, Ethiopia, wants to withdraw its troops quickly. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the BBC on Friday his forces were to start leaving "in the next few days".

(Additional reporting by David Mageria and Jeremy Clarke in Nairobi, Jack Kimball in Asmara, Ingrid Melander in Brussels)

Source Reuters