KHARTOUM, Sudan Jun. 22, 2006 – Somalia's largely powerless government and the Islamic fighters who control the country's capital agreed Thursday to stop military action and recognize each other.

The nonaggression pact signed in Sudan is a move toward international acceptance for the militia, which the U.S. has accused of harboring al-Qaida and wanting to impose a Taliban-style theocracy throughout Somalia.

The militia has said, however, that it does not want to control Somalia's government, and appeared to confirm that by recognizing the two-year-old interim administration backed by the United Nations.

The government based in Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of the capital, Mogadishu, agreed in exchange to recognize the religious justice system that the Islamic Courts Union militia has operated for years in much of southern Somalia.

The militia became the dominant military force in Somalia after it defeated secular warlords and seized control of Mogadishu and much of the south this month in battles that killed hundreds, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.

The agreement did not include the warlords who were driven out of Mogadishu, and their fighters are not bound to respect the cease-fire.

While the Islamic militia did not directly fight the interim government, it has up to now refused to recognize the authorities in Baidoa as the national government.

"The parties have committed themselves to cease all verbal provocation and all military action," the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said at the signing ceremony, which was presided over by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

"The two parties agreed to reach a compromise that preserves the unity and integrity of Somalia," Moussa told reporters.

The U.N.-backed government "recognizes the reality and existence of the Islamic Courts," Moussa said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the agreement and thanked the League of Arab States for facilitating the talks, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement from New York. He urged the two sides to "remain engaged in dialogue to promote peace and national reconciliation," the statement said.

Both parties also agreed to prosecute war criminals and to reconvene on July 15 in Khartoum to negotiate a full peace agreement without preconditions, Moussa added.

"We have no interest in shedding any blood, and we will seek every possible way to preserve the life of the Somalis," said Somalia's interim President Abdillahi Yusuf, who attended the signing ceremony.

Foreign Minister Abdallah Sheikh Ismail signed the agreement with the chief delegate of the Islamic Courts, Mohamed Ali Ibrahim. The two men hugged each other afterward.

Al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, hailed the accord as "reviving hope" for Somalia, which has undergone more than 15 years of conflict.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each another.

Associated Press writer Chris Tomlinson in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.

Source: AP

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