Somali president ready for talks with Islamists "if fighting ends"

SANA’A, 11 November, 2006 - Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said on Saturday that he and his government were ready to hold talks with the Islamic Courts movement, which controls much of southern Somalia, if it stopped attacking government forces. "We are ready for negotiations with the Islamic Courts," Ahmed told reporters after talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a but added: "That would not be possible before the fighting on the ground is halted."

"We will not accept that the Islamic Courts talk to us on the one hand and attack us with the other," Ahmed said.

Ahmed refused to comment on a deal signed Friday by the Islamic Courts and a parliamentary delegation to avoid hostilities, saying he had not yet received any details.

After a two-hour meeting behind closed doors with Saleh at the presidential palace in Sana'a, Ahmed said his talks with the Yemeni leader were "fruitful."

Yemen's official news agency Saba said the talks focused on "boosting efforts for national reconciliation between the (Somali) factions."

Somalia has been without a functioning central government since 1991. The Islamic Courts have taken control of most of the southern Somalia since they seized the capital Mogadishu in last June.

Source: German Press Agency

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