Islamic Courts Union forces have taken control of police stations in Mogadishu as Ethiopian troops started withdrawing from Somalia, officials said on Saturday.

Abdirahim Issa Adow, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union said he was deploying troops to three police stations to ensure the capital, Mogadishu, does not erupt in violence.

Somalia's interim Prime Minister, Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, and the parliament Speaker Adan "Madobe" Mohamed have welcomed President Abdullahi Yusuf's resignation, Radio Garowe reports.

Prime Minister Nur Adde told a Monday press conference at his residence in the capital, Mogadishu, that Yusuf's resignation was a "democratic move."

Fresh turmoil and uncertainty loom for the people of Somalia - already ravaged by displacement, conflict, drought and hyper-inflation - after the country's interim president resigned on 29 December.

Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned after disagreements with parliament and his prime minister, as well as pressure from the international community.

The last-minute attempt by the Bush administration to force through a United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing a new peacekeeping mission in Somalia is both ill-advised and counterproductive.

Islamist militia in control of Somalia's southern port of Kismayo seized aid trucks and warned the UN's World Food Program (WFP) about future aid deliveries, Radio Garowe reported Wednesday.

Witnesses and officials said seven aid trucks were seized near Kismayo, the country's third-largest city that has been under the control of the Islamist Al Shabaab militia since August.

Somalia's president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed sacked his premier on Sunday after he accused his cabinet of failure.

The president has told to the reporters in a press conference that Nur Adde's government has collapsed legally.

At least 12 people were killed in Lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia, after Ethiopian troops clashed with suspected insurgents, Radio Garowe reported Saturday.

The fighting erupted in Wanla Weyn, a district in Lower Shabelle where Ethiopian forces recently established a military checkpoint.

War-weary Somalis have little reason to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights on 10 December.

"I don't know what this day means," Faliz Ali, 33, a mother of two, said. "I am more worried about how I am going to take care of my children."

The humanitarian crisis in Somalia has deteriorated to a point where nearly half of the Horn of Africa nation's population requires assistance, a senior United Nations aid official warned today, calling on donors to urgently fund an appeal for more than $900 million for relief operations.

The United Nations Security Council has approved a resolution establishing a framework through which the international commmunity can crack down on Somali pirates and better enforce the UN arms embargo on the country.

Flash floods in south-western Gedo region have displaced hundreds of families and inundated hectares of farmland in and around Bardera, the regional capital.

Abdirisaaq Mohamed Geriyow, executive director of the Social and Agricultural Development Organisation (SADO), an NGO based in Bardera, said the floods followed heavy rains in the town and in the hilly areas around it.

Somalia: An African Union peacekeeper from Uganda has died in an attack in the Somali capital, Mogadishu - the second to be killed in as many days.

Two peacekeepers were injured in the attack, in which a roadside bomb hidden under a pile of rubbish hit a group of soldiers, an AU spokesman said.

Somalia: Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has called a recent parliamentary vote "illegal" after lawmakers rejected the return of pro-Yusuf Cabinet ministers who resigned in July, Radio Garowe reported Monday.