UNITED NATIONS, Rabi'II 18, 1437, January 28, 2016, SPA -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised an agreement by Somalia's government on Thursday on a model for the electoral process to establish a new, bicameral federal parliament in 2016, a U.N. spokesman said, according to Reuters. "He particularly applauds the commitment to representation of women and minority groups, including that women will comprise 30 percent of the next parliament," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Michael Keating, said the model envisages a lower house of 275 members, based on a current power-sharing formula between clans, and an upper house of 54 members, based on equal representation of existing, emerging and prospective federal states and an allocation of additional seats to breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland. "This is the culmination of almost six months of intense consultations," Keating told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. "It may be a watershed moment, marking the growing political maturity of a federal Somalia." --SPA 22:36 LOCAL TIME 19:36 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w