Somalia's transitional government has formed a joint police and military unit, a lawmaker confirmed on Tuesday.

Awad Ashara, chairman of Somali parliamentary foreign relations committee, said the 700-strong force was to counter attacks by suspected Islamists in the capital Mogadishu and also quell growing instability in other parts of the war-ravaged nation.

The transitional government blamed the spate of attacks on the remnants of the Islamists, saying there are some 3,500 Islamist fighters in the city.

The Africa Union's peace and security committee has set up two working groups to oversee military and financial planning of the deployment into Mogadishu.

Last week, Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi appealed to the AU for the deployment in his country within days.

But the date of deployment has not been announced. So far Uganda, Burundi, Nigeria and Ghana have contributed a total of 4, 000 soldiers for the peacekeeping mission.

Source: Xinhua