UNITED NATIONS, April 23 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to the violence raging in Somalia, UN spokesperson Michele Montas said Monday.

    "The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the continuing heavy fighting in Mogadishu, which has reportedly killed more than 250 people and forced more than 320,000 from their homes in the past six days alone," Montas told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York.

    "He deplores the reported indiscriminate use of heavy weapons against civilian population centers, which is in disregard of international humanitarian law," she added in a statement.

    Ban also called on the parties to "immediately cease all hostilities and to facilitate access for the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance," reiterating that there is no military solution to the Somali conflict and renewing his call for an urgent resumption of political dialogue.

    In December 2006, the Transitional Federal Government, backed by Ethiopian forces, dislodged the Union of Islamic Courts from Mogadishu and much of the rest of the country, which has not had a functioning government since 1991.