The humanitarian operations of UN children's Fund (UNICEF) in Jowhar, temporary seat of Somalia's transitional government, has been halted following the take over of the UN agency's offices by militia groups.

According to reports reaching here on Monday, Jowhar administrator has ordered UNICEF local staff to vacate their offices and surrender the keys to the militia groups loyal to President Abdullahi Yusuf.

"Mohamed Dheere and his police took control of our compound on Sunday and insisted that the staff hands over the key to him," UNICEF's head of mission Christean Balslev-olesen was quoted as saying.

The UN agency is running numerous projects by local staff in Jowhar following the evacuation of 13 international UN staff last week as a result of military movements in and around the town, raising concerns over fighting between rival factions of the new Somali government.

Balselv-olesen said UNICEF programs in Jowhar included water, education, HIV/AIDS and youth projects.

UN agencies and foreign humanitarian organizations have recently evacuated staff from Jowhar, fearing clashes between followers and opponents of President Yusuf.

Militiamen obeying orders of different warlords are arriving in the Jowhar area, a central Somali town that President Yusuf controversially chose as the country's temporary capital earlier this year.

The obvious rise in tensions between the Mogadishu and Jowhar fractions has caused renewed fear in the international community, observing that the 14th peace attempt in Somalia is slowly crumbling.

President Yusuf had said in July that he would recruit militia forces from his northern stronghold of Puntland and other parts of the Horn of Africa nation to join a new army.

President Yusuf's fledgling government has insisted on operating in Jowhar, after relocating from the Kenyan capital Nairobi in June this year.

Yusuf says Mogadishu is still too dangerous for the installation of a central authority.

A powerful faction led by Parliamentary Speaker Sheriff Hassan Sheikh Aden and warlords in Mogadishu are resisting the president's attempts to move the government's location, saying Mogadishu is the only recognized capital.

Earlier, a Mogadishu-based National security Minister Mohammed Qanyare claimed that Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi had broken the terms of a traditional charter requiring Somalis to pursue reconciliation.

Sources in Mogadishu say the capital has been tense since news of militia movements emerged last Wednesday.

Rumors had already been spreading because Jowhar's phone lines were temporarily cut off.

The warlords and MPs reportedly warned aid workers and foreigners to leave Jowhar, 90km north of the capital, in a statement issued Wednesday.

Government members, MPs and their allied armed groups in Mogadishu have been holding separate talks over the latest developments in Jowhar.

Somalia has had no operational government for the past 14 years, following the collapse in 1991 of the government of the late president Muhammad Siad Barre.

Civil war erupted soon after Barre was toppled, as various factions leaders fought for power.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2005)