The Obama administration of the United States has provided weapons and ammunition to Somalia's transitional government "on an urgent basis" for fighting against rebels, the State Department said Thursday.

"At the request of that government, the State Department has helped to provide weapons and ammunition on an urgent basis," spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters, saying the transitional government represents Somalia's best chance for peace, stability and reconciliation.

The United States supports the government's efforts to repel the onslaught of extremist forces "which are intent on destroying the Djibouti peace process and spoiling efforts to bring peace and stability to Somalia through political reconciliation," said Kelly.

Some 300 people, including Somalia' internal security minister and the chief of police for Mogadishu, have been killed, and nearly 160,000 other displaced since Islamic extremists launched a renewed offensive in the Somalia capital in early May.

The transitional government has appealed to Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Yemen to militarily intervene in the situation, in which the extremists want to topple the government and impose the Islamic law of Sharia. The African Union already deployed some 4,000 peacekeeping troops in the country, who has been without a functioning government since 1991, but the troops have been also under constant attacks by the extremists.

Source: Xinhua