By Ysain Bu'ul BAIDOA, Somalia, April 7 (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for Africa flew to Somalia on Saturday to urge the interim government to establish a lasting truce to clear the way for a reconciliation conference threatened by violence in Mogadishu. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer landed in Baidoa, the government's former temporary capital in south-central Somalia, under heavy security, witnesses said. Frazer, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Somalia since 1994, was whisked off to the former presidential palace to meet with President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, witnesses said. Frazer's visit comes on the sixth day of a truce following some of the heaviest fighting in the capital Mogadishu in 15 years. The fighting was sparked by an offensive to wipe out a persistent insurgency before an April 16 national reconciliation conference. "The idea is to try to talk to all sides to turn this seemingly temporary ceasefire into something more permanent, and press for the reconciliation," an official familiar with Frazer's mission told Reuters. Despite nearly a week with only sporadic gunfire -- the norm in Mogadishu -- many doubt the security situation will improve enough in time for the start of the conference, which is designed to bring together all sectors of Somali society. Diplomats see the meeting as the government's only chance to gain the legitimacy and inclusiveness it needs to lead a nation in anarchy since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The joint Somali government and Ethiopian offensive led to entire pro-insurgent neighbourhoods being demolished with rockets, tanks and artillery from March 29-April 1, in fighting that killed at least 400 people and wounded about 1,000. WAR CRIME SPECTRE Rebel attacks, carried out by gunmen from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan and a defeated militant Islamist movement, and the government's responses have sent 124,000 residents -- a tenth of Mogadishu's population -- fleeing since February. The assault's indiscriminate shelling prompted a European Union investigation into possible war crimes by Ethiopian and Somali troops, and also by African Union peacekeepers from Uganda who failed to stop them from happening. Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda all deny wrongdoing. Hawiye elders and Ethiopian military commanders were due to meet on Sunday to discuss the ceasefire. In Baidoa, plainclothes and uniformed military security personnel had virtually locked down the agricultural trading town, witnesses said. Frazer was due to address the parliament before returning to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Somalia's interim government is the 14th attempt to establish central rule in the Horn of Africa nation since 1991. Frazer has said she sees this current time as the best opportunity since then to create a lasting government. (Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi and Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu)
