MOGADISHU (AFP) - US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer arrived Saturday on an unannounced visit to Somalia for talks with the country's president and prime minister.

She is the highest ranking US official to visit war-torn Somalia since 1994, the US embassy in Nairobi said.

Frazer arrived in the town of Baidoa, seat of the country's parliament, 250 kilometres (150 miles) northeast of the capital Mogadishu, local journalists said.

She went into talks with transitional president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Ali Mohamed Guedi as Somali government troops and US security guards in civilian clothes provided tight protection.

Frazer, who was also accompanied by US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger, arrived as the government and its Ethiopian allies battled insurgents in the capital Mogadishu.

Washington backed Ethiopia's intervention in Somalia to oust Islamist militia from the capital three months ago but clashes have resumed in the past few weeks with Islamic and other fighters.

Somalia has been torn apart by warlords and other factions since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. The transitional government created in 2004 has failed to impose any control.

A National Reconciliation Conference is planned to start April 16, despite threats of disruption by hardline Islamists alleged by Washington to have links with Al-Qaeda.