Differences emerge over numbers of conference delegates

After two days of political haggling, Somali groups meeting in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, have asked the mediators to determine the number of delegates to remain at the peace talks, a source close to the talks told IRIN on Thursday. Members of the leaders' committee (comprising representatives of the faction leaders, the Transitional National Government and civil society), which met on Monday, failed to agree on the number of delegates from each group to be allocated to various committees, he said. "Last night [Wednesday], the leaders' committee decided to transfer the issue to the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) technical committee for it to come up with an acceptable number of delegates," said the source. "They are basically admitting they have failed, and so they want the technical committee to make the decisions, with some guidance from them," he added. "There are over 1,000 delegates now, and the original list allowed for only 350," he noted.