A senior United Nations official has pledged continuing support for Somalia's transition to peaceful democracy.

The UN's humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Randolph Kent, said the government was facing a difficult and complex process.

But he added that the UN would aid the administration in the demobilisation of militia groups and the creation of a new infrastructure.

Mr Kent, who's based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said the total UN staff in Somalia now numbered more than a-thousand.

Militia groups have threatened to use force if the government attempts to deploy a new police force in Somalia which is to be made up of former militiamen.