NAIROBI, June 10 (Xinhua) -- A top United Nations envoy is currently in Somalia, holding a series of high-level talks on the political situation in the Somali capital Mogadishu, and what humanitarian assistance is needed by the people affected by the recent fighting there.

    Ian Steel, the spokesman of the UN political office for Somalia,said on Saturday that Francois Lonseny Fall, the UN Secretary General's Representative for Somalia, is in Somalia meeting local authorities.

    According to Steel, Ambassador Fall, who was accompanied by UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche, had met with envoys and senior members of the international community in Nairobi and held discussions with the governor of Mogadishu, who briefed him on the situation in the capital and appealed for humanitarian and medical assistance.

    "Ambassador Fall will return to Nairobi on Monday," Steel said by telephone.

    Fall is scheduled to brief the Security Council on the situation next week, and this will follow this week's call by the 15-member UN Security Council for all concerned to comply with the arms embargo and avoid any further destabilization in a country that has seen intensifying violence as Islamic forces reportedly took control of Mogadishu after fierce battles with other groups.

    Somalia, one of the world's poorest countries with a population of some 8 million on the east coast of Africa, has been without a functioning government ever since the collapse of President Muhammad Siad Barre's regime in 1991.

    Currently Mogadishu is the only capital in the world where the UN does not have access for international humanitarian staff, due to insecurity, despite an estimated 250,000 internally displaced living in the city. Enditem