Stand-off between UN and US worsens

NEW YORK - The stand-off between the United Nations and Washington over the outcome of the Somalia intervention has worsened, with the Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, threatening to hold up the deployment of a UN peace-keeping force until the US forces have pacified and disarmed the entire country and not just Mogadishu, Bardera and Baidoa as planned, writes Leonard Doyle.

On the political front, the Mr Boutros-Ghali is angling to outflank the efforts by the US representative in Somalia, Robert Oakley, to organise a settlement between the main warring factions. In a not-so-subtle gesture, he instructed his representative in Somalia to notify Mr Oakley that the warlords had been invited to UN peace talks in Addis Ababa.