African diplomats meet to discuss Somalia

African and Western diplomats were discussing the details of a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, an African Union spokesman said today, after militias vowing to impose Islamic rule took over the capital of the Horn of Africa country.

The meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will not decide when peacekeepers would be deployed because the UN Security Council would have to first ease an arms embargo on Somalia imposed in 1992 so that troops can carry arms in that country without violating international law, said Assane Ba, spokesman for the African Union’s conflict management department.