The United States will strengthen engagement with the governments of Puntland and Somaliland in Somalia as part of a two-track policy aimed at curbing the growth of terrorist extremism, but also to support the Transitional Federal Government, says Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson.

At a briefing September 24, 2010 in New York, Carson said the two-track policy supports the Djibouti peace process, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the government of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, president of Somalia.

Carson, who is the assistant secretary for African affairs, told reporters at the special briefing that the first track is designed to help the TFG become more effective and more inclusive and to give it the ability to provide services to its people. In addition, the United States will continue to work to strengthen the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

Engagement with Puntland and Somaliland is part of the second track, he added.

"We hope to be able to have more American diplomats and aid workers going into those countries on an ad hoc basis to meet with government officials to see how we can help them improve their capacity to provide services to their people, seeing whether there are development assistance projects that we can work with them on," Carson said. "We think that both of these parts of Somalia have been zones of relative political and civil stability, and we think they will, in fact, be a bulwark against extremism and radicalism that might emerge from the South."

The United States, as part of the second track, will reach out to groups in south-central Somalia, local governments, clans and subclans that are opposed to al-Shabaab, the radical extremist group in the South. These are groups, Carson said, that are not allied formally or directly with the TFG.

"We will look for opportunities to work with these groups to see if we can identify them, find ways of supporting their development initiatives and activities," Carson added.

But Carson said the United States will follow the African Union position and recognize only a single Somali state.

A major meeting on Somalia was held by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the sidelines of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly that brought together heads of state from five different African nations, several African foreign ministers and European foreign ministers, Carson said.

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg represented the United States as this meeting and set out the two-track policy, Carson said. The problems in Somalia, he added, are viewed as a national problem for the people of Somalia, a regional problem for Africa and a global problem.

"It is a problem that has metastasized over the last two decades, which has led to a situation where we now have international piracy, foreign fighters going into Somalia, and some groups in Somalia supporting remnants of the al-Qaida East Africa cell," he said.

The situation in Somalia poses a regional problem because of the large number of refugees flowing into neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti, he said. In addition to a large flow of refugees, large amounts of illegal arms are flowing into Somalia and illegal commerce is going on, he added.

"Somalia is a collapsed state with a weak government unable to project either power or stability or to provide services to its people," Carson said.

Carson said that greater engagement means meeting periodically with government officials from Puntland and Somaliland, discussing a range of development issues that include health, education, agriculture and water projects.

The aim is to strengthen their ability to govern and to deliver vital public services, he added. All U.S. operations for Somalia are run out of Nairobi, Kenya, he said.

The Djibouti peace process is an African-led initiative that has the support of IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, according to Carson in a March press briefing on the peace process. It has the support of the African Union and the key states in the region, and has also been supported by the United Nations, the European Community, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, he added.

The Djibouti peace process recognizes the importance of trying to put together an inclusive Somali government and takes into account the importance of history, culture and clan and subclan relations.