Years of chaos take toll in Somalia Global terror and militant threats are among the most pressing issues in Somalia The militant group Al-Shabaab continues to pose a major threat World leaders met Thursday in London to address terror and conflict in the Horn of Africa nation and find ways to resolve other critical problems, including famine and weak leadership. British Foreign Minister William Hague dismissed criticism of the conference by some who said it lacked enough Somali input. "It's not western, it's global," he told CNN. Part of our objective here is to build up the local governments, the regional governments, the institutions that have been able to take root ... which is why they are all here. It's not top down at all. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said Al-Shabaab's recent announcement that it had joined the al Qaeda terrorist network should serve as a wake-up call. "Clearly, a new and more dangerous theater for terrorist action has emerged in Somalia, and this calls for focused and concerted international effort," said Kibaki, whose nation hosts the world's largest refugee camp. Dadaab is brimming with desperate Somalis who have fled their homeland. Kibaki said it was vital to develop a Somali national security force in order to guarantee long-term security and stability. "In this regard, there is need to support the setting up of a nucleus Somali armed force," he said. "The transitional federal government was always meant to be just that -- transitional," she said. Somalia has not had a central government since 1991, and the Islamist Al-Shabaab miltiant group has waged war against the transitional federal government for years. Thursday's session aimed to galvanize the international community to develop a more comprehensive approach toward teh country. But there was also recognition that it would take time to bring change to a place that has come to epitomize a failed state. "We are realistic -- Somalia's problems cannot be solved in a day, but its people deserve a better future, and our own security requires their country to become more stable," Hague said. He said the London conference aimed to build a legitimate political process to ensure stability. On the latter, he applauded the U.N. Security Council's decision Wednesday to increase the African Union force in Somalia from about 12,000 to close to 18,000 troops. In recent months, the terror group has lost ground but remains a potent threat in the country. The international community hopes the bolstered African Union force will further degrade the group, creating space for a political solution. E.J. Hogendoorn, director of the International Crisis Group's Horn of Africa project, called Al-Shabaab "resilient" and said the militants will try to regain strength by exploiting the transitional government's lack of progress, Unless a more appropriate political framework is developed for Somalia, Al-Shabaab or its successor will remain a regional and wider international concern for many years to come,' Hogendoorn said. CNN's Nima Elbagir, Becky Anderson and Elise Labott in London contributed to this report.