African Union Team Arrives In Mogadishu

MOGADISHU, Somalia, Jan. 14 -- An African Union delegation has arrived in Somalia's capital to discuss the deployment of international peacekeepers, and government troops expanded a house-to-house search for weapons in one of the world's most heavily armed cities, officials said Sunday.

Mohamed Foum, the A.U.'s special representative for Somalia, said nine delegates arrived in Mogadishu on Saturday for meetings with leaders of the U.N.-supported transitional government in this chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

If Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf is able to establish relative calm, foreign peacekeepers could deploy to protect his government until it can form a police force and army.

Troops loyal to the interim government, backed by Ethiopia's military, last month routed an Islamic movement that had controlled much of southern Somalia since the summer. But lack of security remains a problem in a country that has not had a central government since 1991.

The United States and the European Union have pledged financial help for an African peacekeeping force. But no African government has responded to the push to form an 8,000-member mission, although Uganda has said it is willing to send as many as 1,500 soldiers as part of a wider mission.

Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the weapons search was taking place in several neighborhoods but did not disclose the number of weapons seized, saying it was a military secret.