Ethiopian troops who helped Somalia's government drive out a radical Islamic militia last month began withdrawing from this Horn of Africa nation on Tuesday, a Somali government spokesman said.

Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki says that any African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission sent into Somalia is doomed to failure.

An official with Uganda's ruling party Friday said the party has approved a plan to send a contingent of Uganda peacekeeping troops into Somalia, saying that he is confident Ugandan parliament will approve the plan. The African Union is also meeting to discuss the issue of the Somali peacekeeping force. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.

The United Nations' special envoy to Somalia has met the country's interim president for the first time in the Somali capital Mogadishu. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi reports the envoy is urging government leaders to reconcile with opponents and form an all-inclusive, broad-based administration.

The Somalia National Transitional Government (TFG) has ordered the closure of a number of FM radio stations and a television outlet in Mogadishu. Among the stations closed are Horn Afrik Media and an Al Jazeera television station.

Many residents of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, say they fear deploying foreign peacekeepers to re-establish security there after the fall of the country's Islamist movement may cause more instability, not less. From Mogadishu, VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has this report.

In Somalia, the interim government says it has reached agreement with clan warlords to disarm their militias and join a new national army. But even as the negotiations were under way in the presidential residence, at least five people were killed and several others wounded during a clash near the residence between presidential security guards and the militia of a powerful warlord. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.

Somali government officials are reporting four new U.S. airstrikes in southern Somalia, in areas where Islamist fighters are believed to be hiding.

The Pentagon today confirmed that U.S. forces conducted an air strike against a suspected Al-Qaeda cell in Somalia on January 7.

The European Union says U.S. airstrikes in Somalia are not helpful to efforts to bring long-term stability to the war-torn east African nation.

A U.S. gunship late Monday attacked one, possibly two, suspected al-Qaida hideouts in southern Somalia. The American air strike is reported to have targeted several operatives involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

Government officials in Somalia say President Abdullahi Yusuf has entered the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time since taking office in late 2004.