ADDIS ABABA, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The African Union (AU) on Monday condemned a weekend attempt to assassinate Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi as he visited the unsafe capital Mogadishu.

    AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said in a statement that he "deplores the repeated use of violence to achieve political ends in Somalia and urges the Somali leaders andthe population to join hands to consolidate the outcomes" of the Somali National Reconciliation Conference, which was ended last year.

    In the statement, Konare expressed his heartfelt condolences tothe families of those who died in the brutal attack, saying that he "stands with them at this moment of bereavement."

    He stressed on the "need for immediate steps to be taken to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice."

    An explosion ripped through a convoy that was carrying Gedi on Sunday, killing at least five people, mostly security men, and increased tensions in the city controlled by warlords who are alsoGedi's foes.

    Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation, has had no functioning central government since 1991.

    Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed relocated from Kenya in June and have been based in the town of Jowhar, after deciding the capital Mogadishu -- controlled by warlords -- was too unsafe to act as a seat of government.

    Parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden meanwhile leads a faction composed of Mogadishu-based warlords, some members of parliament and cabinet officials who insist the government make the capital its home.

    Efforts by the United Nations and Kenya to mediate an agreement between the two sides has failed. Enditem