A group of US officials has arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu for talks with the Transitional National Government (TNG) and faction leaders opposed to it, a senior TNG official told IRIN on Wednesday.

Ahmad Ise Awad, chief of staff in the prime minister's office, said the team would have "a working lunch with the prime minister at 1300 local time today [Wednesday]". On the agenda for discussion were "the reconciliation process and terrorism issues", he said.

On Thursday, the US officials will meet the National Task Force for Security and Anti-Terrorism to discuss American concerns over the possibility of "suspected terrorists on Somali territory", the official added. Also on Thursday, they would meet the interim president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan.

While in Mogadishu, the US delegation would hold talks with civil society groups and faction leaders opposed to the TNG, local sources told IRIN.

The six-member team visited the town of Baidoa, 240 km northwest of Mogadishu, on Tuesday and spent the night there, Horn Afrik radio reported on Wednesday. According to the radio, while in Baidoa, the Americans held discussions with the newly elected president of the self-declared autonomous State of Southwest Somalia, Hasan Muhammad Nur Shatigadud.

The delegation is expected to leave Mogadishu on 4 April for the self-declared republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia.

US embassy officials contacted by IRIN in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said they had no information about the delegation.