Somali aid hit

MOGADISHU (Reuter) - Food aid slowed to a trickle yesterday in southern Somalia, where most of the nation's 2 million people worst affected by famine live. Relief officials were to hold emergency talks in Mogadishu on ways to save aid operations after a port was closed and cargo crews refused to fly to the south, where renewed clan fighting has erupted.

An aid official said relief groups were pressing the UN to take a leading role in trying to resume work in the south. They want the UN special envoy for Somalia, Mohamed Sahnoun, to negotiate with a Mogadishu warlord accused of stopping relief agencies from operating in the south.