EU urges leaders to resolve rifts within gov't

The European Union (EU) has urged Somalia's interim leaders to resolve wrangles amongst the different institutions of their transitional government so that donors can release some aid, an EU official said.

Derek Fee, acting head of the EU mission responsible for Somalia, said a meeting held on Tuesday with the interim Somali Prime Minister, Ali Muhammad Gedi, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which discussed the wrangles had been "very positive".

Gedi, he added, told the meeting that "dialogue was the way forward" in resolving the problems within the Somali transitional institutions.

"This is what the international community wants to hear," Fee told IRIN on Wednesday. "The messages coming from the prime minister are very positive. The EU is ready to support [him]."

Gedi briefed the meeting, which was attended by a cross-section of Nairobi-based diplomats, about the Somali reconciliation process. "He was open to dialogue and will talk to anyone to end the differences," Muhammad Ali, a senior official in the Prime Minister's Office told IRIN.

Gedi, however, insisted that there were "no two factions" in the transitional government. "There are differences of opinion and that happens everywhere in any government," Ali quoted Gedi as saying.

Following their relocation in June from Nairobi, Somalia's transitional institutions have been divided over where the seat of government should be located.

President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Gedi and their supporters relocated to the town of Jowhar, 90 km north of the capital, Mogadishu. They said Mogadishu must be secured before they can transfer the government to the city.

About 100 members of the 275-strong Transitional Federal Parliament, led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, are in Mogadishu attempting to restore stability to the war-scarred city.

A section of the government, including several prominent faction leaders, strongly disagreed with the decision to install the administration in Jowhar. The proposed deployment of peacekeepers, particularly from Somalia's neighbors, has also deeply divided the new government.

Fee said: "It appears that both sides are now ready for dialogue. We are following and monitoring the situation very closely and if things move forward, the international community is ready to support the transitional government."