Sheikh Sharif Ahmed leader of Islamic Courts speaking to the press recently

The Arab League has called on Somalia's dominant Islamic courts to resume negotiations with the transitional government next week, officials have said.

CAIRO, Egypt, August 11, 2008 – The Arab League has called on Somalia's dominant Islamic courts to resume negotiations with the transitional government next week, officials have said.

The League, which is mediating peace talks between the two parties, said Friday the Islamists had rejected an August 15 resumption date, suggesting next month for a possible return to the negotiating table.

"The Islamic courts initially rejected this date and proposed to hold the negotiations next month, but the League insisted," an Arab League official said on condition of anonymity.

"The (Islamic court) delegation said it would look into the League's proposal and give an answer after meeting with the tribunals' leaders in Somalia," the official added.

A planned second round of talks failed to kick off last week after the Islamists demanded the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops deployed to protect the weak government as a precondition to negotiations.

The Islamists insisted the decision to seek more time for resuming negotiations was not a delaying tactic.

They said it was a strategy to give the Somali government time to sort its problems, notably the creation of a new cabinet.

"This is not a delay tactic but a matter of technicality aimed at enhancing the talks," a senior Islamic court official, who declined to be named, told А F Р .

The government, which has denied the presence of Ethiopian soldiers, has also been divided by the resumption of talks, with President Abdillahi Yusuf Ahmed and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden opposing Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's call for them to be postponed.

But the rift between the two sides was reportedly healed after an Ethiopian mediation.

The first round of talks ended on June 22 with the signing of a mutual recognition and cessation of hostilities pact, which the government has accused the Islamists of violating. The second phase failed to resume on August 2.

Tension has remained high between the two sides, notably after the deployment of the Ethiopian troops last month, which also led 43 ministers and their deputies to resign from Gedi's government.

The Islamists said they might travel to Khartoum, where the talks are due to be held, but refused to say whether they would face the government in formal peace talks.

"The presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia is frustrating efforts to make peace. We would go to Khartoum and raise our concerns over their presence in Somalia," said the official.

The transitional government, formed in Kenya in late 2004 after more than two years of negotiations, was seen as the best chance to restore peace in Somalia but has failed to exert control across the Horn of African nation.

The rising influence of the Islamic courts, which control much of southern Somalia and the capital Mogadishu after defeating local warlords, now threatens the government's authority.

Somalia, a nation of about 10 million people, has been wracked by rounds of bloody clashes since the ouster of strongman Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

Since then more than 14 internationally-backed initiatives have failed to produce an effective government, with analysts blaming the warlords who obtained arms and other forms of support from neighboring countries despite a UN arms embargo.

Source: AFP

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