Cabinet ministers to visit various Somali regions

The Somali cabinet has decided to travel to various regions of Somalia to see where to relocate the interim government, currently operating from Nairobi, Kenya, a spokesman said.

The cabinet has also approved the deployment of 5,000 to 7,000 foreign troops to help restore law and order in the country, the director of communications in the Prime Minister's Office, Hussein Jabiri, told IRIN on Monday.

"The entire cabinet will go within the next two to three days, and spend five days in the country," Jabiri said. "Upon their return they will recommend the most suitable place for the government to relocate to."

The decision to travel to Somalia, taken on Monday, is the latest indicator that momentum has been building for the Kenya-based Somali government to return home. On Sunday, 50 of the 275 members of Somalia's parliament left Nairobi for the capital, Mogadishu, to join another 30 who arrived in the city on 3 February, sources said on Monday.

The second group of parliamentarians, led by Speaker Sharif Hassan Shaykh Aden, included some cabinet ministers. They received a rousing welcome from the public and a show of support from militiamen allied to the country's faction leaders, according to eyewitnesses.

The minister of state for parliamentary relations, Abdirahman Aden Ibbi, who was at the airstrip in southern Mogadishu, told IRIN on Monday that the reception was "unbelievable" with "thousands of people" lining up along the 10 km stretch between the airstrip and the parliamentarians' hotel.

"The emotional welcome is indicative of how much Somalis are longing for a working government," he said.

A local journalist told IRIN that dozens of jeeps mounted with heavy weapons - known locally as "technicals" - were on hand to escort Sharif Hassan and his entourage from the airstrip to the hotel. Sharif Hassan spoke at a rally on Sunday in the "tribunka", a former parade ground, to thousands of people from all over the city, the journalist added.

The parliamentarians' trip to Mogadishu is also part of preparations for the return of the government to Somalia. The delegation included Muhammad Qanyare Afrah, a former Mogadishu-based faction leader and the current minister of national security.

The MPs held discussions with the leaders of Mogadishu's business community and were expected to meet Islamic scholars and civil society groups later on Monday.

The decision to accept foreign troops was endorsed by 64 out of the 73 ministers present. The matter now goes to parliament for final approval. Those opposed to idea of foreign troops included Mogadishu-based faction leaders Usman Atto and Muse Sudi Yalahow, a source told IRIN.

The Somali transitional government had, in January, formed three teams comprising cabinet ministers to begin arrangements for relocation.

Since its appointment late last year, the new government, which includes several faction leaders, had not been able to relocate from Nairobi, citing security considerations. However, it has come under increasing pressure from the Kenyan government and western diplomats to move to Mogadishu.

Somalia's transitional federal parliament elected Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as president on 10 October 2004, culminating a two-year reconciliation conference sponsored by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. He later appointed a prime minister who in turn named the cabinet.