One More Year for the TFG, Says Museveni

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said Somalia's transitional government should be given another year to consolidate gains against militants Otherwise, Uganda will withdraw its troops helping the government fight Islamist al-Shabab militants.

The current mandate for the UN-backed government is due to expire on 20 August and the UN is calling for elections to be held quickly. President Museveni said polls this year would allow the militants to reorganise.

Uganda currently contributes about 5,000 troops to an African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, called Amisom, in Somalia. Burundi supplies the rest of the force.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmad told the International Contact Group on Somalia that the country was too unstable for a vote. He also called for the transitional government's tenure to be extended. The AU force in Somalia deployed to Mogadishu in 2007 to back the weak interim government.

Somalia has been racked by constant war for more than 20 years. Its last functioning national government was toppled in 1991.