The chairman of the African Union Commission called Wednesday for a three-month extension of the bloc's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Jean Ping urged members of the body's Peace and Security Council to "extend the mandate of AMISOM..for three additional months, starting from 16 March 2009."
In August, the UN Security Council renewed the force's mandate for six months, but last month it postponed to June a decision on whether to set up a UN peacekeeping mission in the strife-torn country.
The struggling AU force has suffered numerous attacks by hardline Islamist militia, who also claimed the killing of 11 Burundi troops last month in a suspected suicide attack on their base in southern Mogadishu.
"The security situation in Somalia and Mogadishu in particular remains very volatile," Ping said.
But he said there was a "new political dynamic that is providing new opportunities.
"Now it is a question to translate them into some sort of positive traction towards stabilisation of Somalia."
The AMISOM is currently made up of 3,450 troops from Burundi and Uganda, less than half the 8,000-strong force promised by the AU.
Source: AFP,
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