Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf demanded Friday that the international community quickly send peace- keeping troops to his beleaguered country, DPA reported. The take-over of power by the Somali interim government in the capital Mogadishu was an opportunity to end the 16-year conflict in the Horn of Africa nation, Yusuf told a conference of the International Contact Group for Somalia being held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and led by the United States and Norway. "We do not want a power vacuum in Somalia," US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said, echoing Yusuf's call for international troops. The first troops were expected to arrive at the end of January. Uganda has declared that it is willing to send 2,000 troops. The Contact Group additionally appealed to the Somali interim government to engage in dialogue with the Islamists.
