Huge arms cache found

Mogadishu (Reuter) - US troops and bomb disposal units yesterday gingerly examined the biggest arms cache the multinational task force has found so far in Somalia. A US army squad stumbled on an Aladdin's cave of rockets, artillery shells, mortar rounds and anti-tank mines early on Saturday. Five underground concrete bunkers about 40m (yards) long and 10m wide, were stacked to the ceiling with ammunition and assault rifles, mainly from the former Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, a military spokesman said the United States could hand over command of peacekeeping troops in Somalia to the United Nations in two weeks' time. 'We feel we're rapidly approaching the point where we'll be able to make a very smooth handover to the United Nations command that's going to follow us,' Colonel Fred Peck of the marines told a news conference. 'We are perhaps only a matter of a couple of weeks away from being at that point.' Col Peck said the US-led task force had successfully established eight humanitarian relief centres in the interior. 'The tough nut still is here in Mogadishu.'