By Aweys Osman Yusuf

Mogadishu, 11 May 2007 - UN special representative for Somalia, Francois Fall, who landed at Mogadishu international airport early Friday morning, told journalists that he came to Somalia to talk with the Somali transitional government over the national reconciliation conference.

Fall has had a closed door meeting with Somali president Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed and his prime Minster Ali Mohammed Gedi. The prime minister told stringers, after the meeting, that the Somali officials including the president and the UN envoy discussed issues pertaining to the reconciliation convention and how it was vital to speed up the deployment of the African Union troops in Somalia.

Currently the AU has only around1,500 Ugandan forces in Somalia that are based in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

The Ugandan lawmakers have been debating about funding their troops in Somalia, while some threatened they would launch a campaign to withdraw their forces from Somalia. The Ugandan MPs said the AU did not fund the UPDF troops in Somalia as previously promised by the African organization.

Francois Fall was the highest ranking UN official to visit Somalia since the internationally recognized government backed by its allied Ethiopian forces seized control of the capital Mogadishu early this month after it routed the Islamic insurgents in a fierce battle that took place in gun-infested city.

More than 1,000 civilians perished in the fighting while over 2,000 have been wounded and thousands have been displaced, according to UN and other local rights agencies.

He has also convened with the chairman of the Somali national reconciliation conference, Ali Mahdi Mohamed. Mahdi, former Somalia president, talked to Fall about the importance of sudden AU troop's deployment in the Horn of African nation.

Fall then flew to Puntland, the semiautonomous regional administration in north Somalia where the UN official intends to convince administrators in Puntland to work hard on the release of Irish and Kenyan employees with Care International held hostage in there.

The two were abducted in the province last Wednesday as the abductors made no demands yet. Speaking to Journalists in Mogadishu, fall stressed that the Care International workers should be freed immediately and unconditionally.

Source: Shabelle Media Network