Somalia ? An African Union delegation was in Somalia’s capital of Mogadishu to discuss the deployment of international peacekeepers as the government expanded a house-to-house search for weapons in a one of the world’s most dangerous and heavily armed cities.

Mohamed Foum, the AU’s special representative for Somalia, said nine delegates arrived for meetings with the government in this chaotic African nation.

“A team has gone to take a look and to get information that will help us devise a plan for peacekeepers,” Foum said Sunday.

President Abdullahi Yusuf needs to establish enough calm to allow international peacekeepers to deploy in Somalia to protect his government until it can form an effective police force and army. The government, with critical help from Ethiopia’s military, last month drove out an Islamic militia that had controlled much of southern Somalia since the summer.