November 18, 2006

A mission led by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Somalia will travel to the town of Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's transitional government, on Monday to discuss peace efforts with President Abdullahi Yusuf, a UN spokesman said Friday.

Francois Lonseny Fall will be accompanied by representatives of the Somalia Advisory Contact Group that was established earlier this year to support the peace process, said Stephane Dujarric, the UN chief's spokesman, in a noon briefing at the UN headquarters.

The trip followed the release of a UN report alleging a heavy military build-up in Somalia, fueled by several foreign countries, and is fueling the crisis in the lawless country.

Annan on Wednesday appealed for dialogue between the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls the capital Mogadishu, and the Transitional Federal Parliament based in Baidoa.

The third round of peace talks between the parties in Khartoum, Sudan, were scheduled to be held on Oct. 30 but were postponed because the two parties came with some preconditions and are now scheduled to be held in mid-December, Fall told the Security Council earlier this month.

"The talks which are now suspended should resume very quickly," Annan said. "I also urge the two groups, the transitional government and the Islamic Courts, to avoid further confrontation and military action."

Somalia has been wracked by factional fighting and has had no functioning national government since President Muhammad Siad Barre's regime was toppled in 1991.

Source: Xinhua

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