Somalia calls for a U.N. force to disarm country

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's transitional government on Saturday formally called for the U.N. Security Council to send an armed force to the Horn of Africa nation.

In a letter to the United Nations, Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah said a strong central government would be impossible to establish without the help of an international force to disarm the country's warring factions.

Farah told a news conference that the massive amount of weapons prevents a stable government in Somalia, and destabilizes neighboring countries by being a source for illegal small arms.

Farah's request comes just weeks before the second anniversary of his transitional government, established by clan elders and businessmen.

But the government has failed to include powerful faction leaders who have private militias, so the government controls only a small portion of the country.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and the country turned into a patchwork of battling warlords ruled by heavily armed militias.