Talks between gov't, Islamic group under way

Talks aimed at reconciling Somalia's fledgling transitional government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), were continuing on Monday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, under the mediation of the League of Arab States.

At the same time Kenya announced that President Mwai Kibaki would on Tuesday chair a special summit of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which will discuss the Somali crisis.

IGAD, which comprises Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda and Somalia, mediated the reconciliation talks that culminated in the formation of the transitional government in Kenya in October 2004.

"We are brothers, we can achieve a lot.

We want to focus on ways and means to take Somalia out of its current debacle," Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, speaker of Somalia's transitional parliament and leader of the government delegation, said at the opening of the Khartoum talks.

A high-level delegation of Somali government leaders and members of the UIC first met in Khartoum in June, but the talks collapsed as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) accused the UIC of grabbing territory and enforcing a strict version of Islamic law in a direct challenge to its authority.

The UIC, for its part, accused the TFG of inviting foreign troops into Somalia.

"Foreign interference and the presence of foreign forces on Somali soil, some of whom are already there, is a recipe for another civil war, instead of the pursuit of reconciliation and reconstruction," said Ibrahim Hussein Addow, leader of the UIC delegation to the talks.

Neighbouring countries have backed a proposal to send a peace-support mission to Somalia, but the UIC continues to object to any foreign troops.

Speaking at the opening session on Saturday, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Somalia, François Lonseny Fall, urged both sides to engage in constructive dialogue.

"We believe that resolving problems through mutual consultation and dialogue is the best way forward at this point in time," said Fall.

Meanwhile, the UIC chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, and several of his colleagues held talks in Nairobi at the weekend with Kenyan government officials and western diplomats.

It was not immediately clear what issues were discussed but several sources said the UIC officials wanted to explain their opposition to the deployment of an African peace-building mission to Somalia.

Somalia has been without a functioning national government since the overthrow in 1991 of the administration led by the Muhammad Siyad Barre. While enjoying widespread international support since its creation in 2004, the TFG has been struggling to overcome internal divisions that have prevented it from establishing its authority in the country.

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