Mogadishu, September 01 2006 – Somali lawmakers have met rival Islamists for the first time as the two sides head towards talks aimed at averting war in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation, both sides confirmed on Friday.

The government and Islamists have sent delegations to Khartoum where the Arab League is leading talks this weekend to get the rivals to share power after the Islamists took over the capital Mogadishu and a swathe of southern Somalia.

Their rise has challenged the authority of the fragile Western-backed administration, which is based in the provincial town of Baidoa.

Lawmaker Abdillahi Haji Ali said a dozen lawmakers on Thursday had met top Islamist leaders, including hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, and agreed the government's strongest ally, Ethiopia, should stop interfering in Somali affairs.

"We wanted to familiarize ourselves with their position and to find out what they stand for," Ali told Reuters of the Islamists, which started as a group of Islamic sharia courts.

"The Islamic courts union look at the Ethiopian transgression from the common Somali man's point of view ... we and many of our comrades in parliament have a common belief like them regarding the Ethiopian influence."

Somalia's parliament is divided over Ethiopia's backing of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and President Abdillahi Yusuf.

Witnesses and the Islamists say Ethiopian troops have entered Somalia to support the government. Addis Ababa has repeatedly denied that.

"It's true we met with them," Aweys told Reuters, "We have always said we are ready to talk with our brothers ... The meeting was aimed at strengthening ties with our brothers."

The Islamists had previously said they would not negotiate with the government unless Ethiopia withdrew its forces, but now they have demanded that Addis Ababa stop trying to call the shots for the government, Ali said.

"They went to the (Khartoum) meeting with the full knowledge that Ethiopian troops are in Somalia, but according to them that is not worse than the Ethiopian hand at the negotiating table."

Ali said the Islamists did not believe the talks will be successful, a view shared by many diplomats following Somalia.

The legislators talked for nearly two hours with Aweys, who is on UN and US terrorism lists, hardline cleric Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad "Inda'ade", and moderate leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, sources said.

Aweys denies terrorism links, saying he has been targeted by Washington simply because he wants peace and prosperity for his people through sharia law.

"They are not radicals or fundamentalists as portrayed by Western media but are conservatives just like any other conservative party in the Western countries," Ali said.

In Addis Ababa, the African Union said late on Thursday night it had decided to revise troop deployment plans to Somalia based on recommendations made by a military team. It said it would finalize the plan soon.

The meeting also pursued the possibility of countries other than Somalia's neighbors sending troops. No date for the deployment has been set yet.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre by warlords who then proceeded to fight over patches of the country.

- Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa

Source: Reuters

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