A UN envoy flew to Mogadishu to meet Somalia's president today for talks on security and deployment of African peacekeepers.
Francois Lonseny Fall, a special representative of the UN secretary-general, was to meet President Abdullahi Yusuf, who came to the capital last week for the first time since 2004.
"We are going to discuss issues including reconciliation and dialogue and see how we can work together for the successful deployment of African peacekeeping troops," Mr Fall said.
Somalia's interim government, once confined to the provincial town Baidoa, has called for the urgent deployment of a peacekeeping force after its troops, backed by Ethiopian force, chased rival Islamists out of the capital and most of southern Somalia before the New Year.
It wants the force in Somalia by February, and Ethiopia wants to pull out its troops in weeks, but most analysts say it will take far longer to organise and finance the mission.
High on Mr Fall's agenda will be plans to disarm thousands of gunmen, muzzle a host of warlords blamed for years of chaos since the 1991 ouster of a dictator and develop the impoverished country.
Washington is pledging $40 million for Somalia, $16 million of which would help fund the proposed African Union peacekeeping force approved by the UN Security Council before the war.
Since Ethiopian-Somali forces took Mogadishu on December 28th, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has been trying to bring the volatile nation of 10 million to heel while hunting Islamist fighters who fled into the remote south near Kenya.