Somalia's government close to collapse

Somalia's interim government lurched closer to collapse yesterday as 29 politicians, including four ministers abandoned the unelected body, saying it should reconcile with the defacto regime of the Islamic Courts.

The latest defections from the crippled administration based in Baidoa, hundreds of miles from the capital Mogadishu, has raised further questions of credibility for a government which has international backing but practically no support within the country itself.

Five MPs had already resigned on Tuesday and 18 resigned late last week.

The leader of the Islamic courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told a local radio station that the former ministers were welcome in his group.

"This is great step forward and we call everybody in the government to step aside," local media group Shabelle quoted Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys as saying.

"It is not the correct cabinet that fits Somali people, so they have taken the correct decision.

Every government member is welcome to join the Islamists to participate in rebuilding peace in Somalia," the cleric said.

Critics of the interim government have pointed to the bloated nature of its executive - which boasts more than 100 ministers and deputy ministers - as evidence of corruption and cronyism.

Effective power in war-torn Somalia now lies in the hands of the Islamic Courts, an informal grouping who, with the backing of local business leaders, waged a two month campaign to overthrow the warlords who have held violent sway over the country for much of the last decade.

According to diplomats, several warlords have received significant aid in the form of cash and guns from the US, who see them as a bulwark against the rise of an Islamic group it regards as militant.

The interim government is seen by many in Somalia as a proxy of hated neighbours Ethiopia, whom the Islamic Courts accuse of sending troops over the border to threaten the new regime in Mogadishu.

In the capital yesterday, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Eric Larouche, told journalists that he had noted the Somali capital's security had improved, but "there can be no full security unless there is dialogue between all sides in Mogadishu."However, many Somalis exiled during the years of fighting have begun returning to the country in recent weeks.

The first commercial passenger flights into the country recommenced earlier this week as a further sign of the improvement of the security situation.

- INDEPENDENT