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William Maclean
Nairobi, Aug 1, 2003 (Reuters) - Mediators trying to end anarchy in Somalia said on Thursday they hoped to form a government soon despite increasingly fractious negotiations but added it would need the support of an international peace force.
"We are all looking forward to the formation of a transitional Somali government very soon which...will wrench the country from the present state of despair and devastation," chief mediator Bethuel Kiplagat told a new conference.
"We cannot go there (the capital Mogadishu) without a peacekeeping force. We will definitely require a peace force for Somalia," added Kiplagat, a retired Kenyan diplomat.
"The country cannot be allowed to bleed."
The nine months of Kenyan-hosted talks - the 14th Somali peace effort in a decade - aims to form a government composed of Somalia's many clans to end the chaotic reign of warlords.
But diplomats say matters have been complicated by regional rivals such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Egypt, some of whose observers at the talks appear to want to engineer the installation of their own compliant ruler.
Somalia has been torn by war since the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
The current interim president, Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, stormed out of the talks on Wednesday complaining that delegates were plotting to divide Somalia.
Abdiqassim's Arab-backed Transitional National Government (TNG) was set up in 2000 to try to restore some stability to Somalia but it controls only parts of the capital and tiny pockets in the rest of the country of seven million.
Abdiqassim fears a transitional constitution being negotiated in Kenya could encourage Somalia's break-up on federal lines and marginalise Islam and the Arabic language. But Kiplagat maintains there will be no impact on Islam or Arabic.
The TNG's mandate runs out in mid-August. Kiplagat said the United Nations and African Union (AU) would study what to do if delegates failed to form a new government by that time. The AU has asked seven countries on the continent to supply 81 observers to monitor violations of a nine-month-old ceasefire.
Kiplagat said east African states would appeal to the international community for contributions to a separate force of peacekeeping troops once the new government had been formed.
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