KHARTOUM, Sudan, September 3, 2006 – Negotiators for Somalia's transitional government and its Islamist rivals met face to face behind closed doors Sunday for key talks in the Sudanese capital on political, security and economic issues.

The talks — aimed at steering Somalia away from anarchic violence and toward peace and stability — revolve around a June agreement to discuss political, security, social and economic issues as well as reconstruction, according to a copy of the agenda obtained by The Associated Press.

Somali parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden was seen leading delegates from the U.N.-backed Somali government into the talks with Islamic courts representatives led by Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the group's foreign affairs chief.

Negotiators have said they hope to discuss Cabinet positions for the Islamists and seats in Parliament as well as the transitional charter in talks that are expected to last several days.

Aden and Adow made no statements Sunday before going into the meeting but reaffirmed Saturday that they are committed to peace. Adow warned, however, that foreign interference in Somalia would be "a recipe for the renewal of civil war," alluding to reports that Ethiopian troops had taken up position in three Somali towns.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre and then turned on one another, pulling the country into anarchy.

Clerics and militiamen set up a network of Islamic courts in a bid to restore by enforcing Islamic law, and in June, they swept through Somalia, seizing control of much of the south, including the capital, Mogadishu.

The Islamists and the transitional government signed a truce in June, but talks were stalled for more than two months.

Islamists could argue that they should share power with Somali President Abdillahi Yusuf's transitional government since they control a significant part of the country.

Yusuf's representatives have said they would only discuss Cabinet and other government positions on the basis of a clan-based formula used to form Somalia's transitional institutions.

A peacekeeping force for Somalia will be discussed Tuesday at a meeting of leaders of the seven-nation Intergovernmental Authority on Development, senior Kenyan foreign affairs official Thuita Mwangi said Sunday in Nairobi, Kenya.

The plan, which was presented to the African Union on Thursday, proposes deploying up to eight battalions — as many as 8,000 troops — for six months and at a cost of US$34 million ( € 26.5 million) a month, a diplomat said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The council left the final decision on how to move forward to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, made up of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Sudan.

Uganda and Sudan so far have said they would contribute troops.

After the six-month period, the force would be transformed into an AU mission — only after a 1992 U.N. embargo is eased, said the diplomat, who has been closely involved with Somali affairs.

Source: The Associated Press