U.N. in talks to send relief workers back to Somalia

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is poised to send aid workers back to Somalia after a lightning-fast war, but first needs assurances they can work safely and reach those in need, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The world body withdrew all but two international relief workers from the country last month after Ethiopian and interim government forces launched a military campaign to drive out Islamists who had asserted control over much of the country.

But with most of the fighting over, U.N. officials are now in talks with the interim government in hopes of arranging their return as early as next week, acting Emergency Relief Coordinator Margareta Wahlstrom said.

There had been about 20 international humanitarian staff in Somalia before the march on the capital, Mogadishu, by Ethiopian and government forces that drove the Islamists out of their stronghold in two weeks of warfare.

The Somali nationals who had worked alongside the international aid staff have stayed on the job, carrying out their duties as best they could during the fighting, Wahlstrom told a small group of reporters.

With the conflict now over, "there is a definite strong hunger to do something tangible for Somalia," which has been without an effective central government and dependent on U.N. relief since 1991, Wahlstrom said.

The military campaign had given the country and its interim government "a new opportunity" to assert control over all Somali territory, restore stability and resolve political differences among rival groups, she said.

But it will not be easy, she acknowledged.

While the Islamists have been forced into hiding after being routed from their stronghold, they vow to fight on.

And the militias and warlords that once dominated Mogadishu are also reasserting themselves in parts of the country.

Wahlstrom said it appeared relief workers, once they returned, would be able to gain access to central Somalia but would have a hard time for now in southern Somalia, where travel is difficult after recent flooding as well as the war.

Another challenge will be shipping in fresh food supplies and other aid to the southern port town of Kismayu, where U.N. deliveries have been barred while the area serves as a base for Ethiopian soldiers, Wahlstrom said.