NAIROBI, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Monday condemned the assassination bid on Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and appealed for calm after the latest string of attacks in the lawless nation.

    In a statement issued in Nairobi, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia Francois Lonseny Fall said he was relieved that the resident, other leaders and lawmakers were not hurt in the explosion, which left 11 people dead.

    "Fall condemned the bombing attempt on the life of the Somali President, Abdullahi Yusuf. He also expressed sadness at the loss of life and injuries to innocent bystanders," said a statement from the UN Political Office for Somalia.

    Speaking on behalf of the United Nations and all member states of the European Union, Ambassador Fall called for calm in Somalia.

    "We condemn this attack on the peace process and call on all Somalis to resolve their differences peacefully," the UN envoy said.

    Somali Foreign Minister Ismail Mohammud Hurreh told a news conference in Nairobi that the remote-controlled car bomb, which was aimed at President Yusuf, went off as the president's motorcade drove from parliament building to his palace.

    Hurreh said several people were critically injured in the blasts, which also destroyed several cars in the vicinity.

    "Five people were killed and three wounded in president's convoys of three trucks as he was moving to his palace from parliament building," Hurreh told reporters in the Kenyan capital.

    "The fighting between the presidential security force and the attackers later ensued and six of the group that carried out the attack were also killed and two captured," the ministers said.

    "From this what is very clear is that there was a plan to assassinate the president carried out by an organized group. It was not only something against an individual but a plan organized to attack transitional government officials," he said.

    The foreign minister said the president had addressed lawmakers in parliament where he asked them to approve a new government to replace the previous one he dissolved due to inefficiency.

    The minister said those who killed an Italian Catholic nun in northern Mogadishu on Sunday were behind Monday's attack in Baidoa, where the transitional federal government is based.

    He refused to speculate as to who was behind the blasts but suggested they were probably linked to the proposed peacekeeping mission.

    "I am not accusing anybody at this stage, because I don't want to speculate at this particularly moment, but there were some people who were claiming to fight IGAD and Somalia is part of IGAD," he said.

    Analysts said the bombs blasts come amid pleas from the transitional federal government (TFG) to the African Union (AU), to send peacekeepers to the country to protect the powerless administration.

    The minister appealed to international community especially the United Nations to lift its arms embargo on his country to enable the UN-backed administration gain a foothold in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

    A standing international arms embargo on the country further challenges the deployment of peacekeepers to the troubled Horn of Africa nation, as well as the fact that the AU cannot afford the multi-million dollar peacekeeping mission.

    But the Islamists have vowed to fight foreign troops if they are sent to Somalia to support Yusuf's government by the seven-member east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

    The AU Security Council recently approved plans to send a contingent of peacekeepers to Somalia by the end of the month, however, the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts, who has taken control of Mogadishu and large parts of southern Somalia, has vowed to fight any foreign force entering the country. Enditem