Somali Islamists refuse peace talks

MOGADISHU - Somalia's Islamists said overnight they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil, and for the first time acknowledged Eritrean backing for their cause.

Somalia's interim government had earlier agreed to attend talks with the Islamists in Khartoum on August 1-2, responding to a UN drive to avoid war in the Horn of Africa country.

"We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions," said Abdirizak Adam, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf's chief of staff, after talks with a senior UN envoy in the government's base in the provincial town of Baidoa.

However, the Islamists' main leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told foreign correspondents in Mogadishu: "As long as Ethiopia is in our country, talks with the government cannot go ahead."

Ethiopia has sent several thousands troops into Somalia, according to witnesses and regional experts, to counter expansion by the Islamists, who took Mogadishu last month, and protect the fragile interim government.

"If the government cares about the Somalis, it should remove our enemy from the country ... Ethiopia has invaded us," Aweys said.

Aweys, a hardliner who is on US and UN lists of people linked to terrorism, was speaking before the UN special envoy to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, met Islamist leaders in Mogadishu to try and promote the talks in Sudan.

The government of President Abdullahi Yusuf is based in a provincial town, Baidoa, where witnesses say Ethiopian soldiers are guarding key buildings. Addis Ababa backs Yusuf but regards the Islamists as led by "terrorists".

In a rare public acknowledgement of Eritrean support for the Islamists - which the United Nations and regional analysts have confirmed - Islamist leader Aweys said Asmara was providing support in gratitude for past help.

"The previous Somali government [of President Mohamed Siad Barre] helped Eritrea during its struggle for independence from Ethiopia," he said. "Eritrea helps the Somali people, they are returning back the favour."

The United Nations has said Eritrea has funnelled arms and weapons to the Islamists, while analysts believe Eritrean military advisers are in Mogadishu.

Aweys denied the Islamists planned to expand to Baidoa. "There has never been an intention of attacking Baidoa," he said.

The Islamists captured Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords in June and now control a large swathe of southern Somalia.

Fall's visit came a day after the African Union (AU) urged the UN Security Council to speed up plans to ease an arms embargo on Somalia to allow foreign peacekeepers to deploy.

The appeal followed an agreement by the AU and the east African regional body IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) to send troops to help secure peace in Somalia.

The plan has been repeatedly rejected by the Islamists.

"The AU Peace and Security Council appeals to the UN Security Council to expedite the exemption of the arms embargo on Somalia," AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said late on Monday.

He told reporters the AU was concerned about the "continued fragility" of Somalia's peace process, and urged both parties to resume dialogue.

The Security Council says it is willing to consider a long-delayed deployment of foreign peacekeepers. In a July 13 statement, it also expressed a readiness to ease the arms ban to allow Somalia's government to develop its own security forces.

- REUTERS