A suicide car bomber has killed at least 11 people near a hotel where politicians gather in the Somali capital Mogadishu.
Police officer Hassan Ali said the attacker rammed his vehicle into a cafe outside the Muna Hotel.
The hotel is in the heart of areas controlled by government and African Union forces and not far from the presidential palace.
Al Shabaab militants have claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We were behind the explosion at the Muna Hotel. We targeted legislators and government officials," said a spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations.
Al Shabaab rebels dressed in army uniforms attacked the same hotel in August 2010, storming the building and killing more than 30 people.
The al-Qaeda-linked militants pulled out of Mogadishu a year later but still pose an almost daily threat, even though UN and Western officials say 98% of the capital is now in government hands.
Shop fronts and cafe walls just outside the hotel were destroyed by the blast. African Union and government soldiers secured the area to move the dead and the wounded away.
"Some people say the death toll is 15, but I have confirmed 11 civilians dead, a legislator was also slightly injured. It was a 4x4 suicide car bomb," said police spokesman Abdullahi Barise.
The attack comes two weeks ahead of a one-day conference in London to tackle the instability in Somalia and piracy off its shores, and the same day the EU's new special envoy to the Horn of Africa visited Mogadishu.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague also visited Mogadishu last week and appointed a new Somalia ambassador, but said Britain would not open an embassy in Mogadishu until security improved.
