MOGADISHU, March 23, 2007 – Somalia's powerful Hawiye clan said Friday it had reached a ceasefire agreement with the Ethiopian army, even as heavy fighting erupted for a third straight day in the capital Mogadishu.

Ethiopian military officials confirmed that a ceasefire meeting took place in the Mogadishu residence of warlord Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid, but fell short of confirming the truce.

Meanwhile, AFP correspondents and witnesses reported sporadic gunfire between Ethiopian troops and insurgents in Mogadishu after two straight days of heavy artillery exchanges that claimed at least 24 lives and left hundreds wounded.

Residents reported exchanges of fire at the defense ministry headquarters where Ethiopian troops are based.

"There is no face-to-face fighting, but Ethiopians in the camp are receiving shots from long range machine guns and they are returning fire in their direction," southern Mogadishu resident Ahmed Yolah told AFP.

"The neighborhood is very tense," said another resident Mohamed Aden Ibrahim.

A spokesman for Hawiye clan elders, Ugas Abdi Dahir Mohamed, said earlier that they had agreed with Ethiopian military officials to implement a ceasefire.

Suspected Islamist insurgents are largely drawn from the capital's dominant Hawiye clan.

"The Ethiopians will remain in their military compound and will not militarily engage with Somalis. And for our part, the Hawiye will not fire any shot and will respect the ceasefire," the spokesman said.

The Hawiye elders command respect owing to their traditional role of solving disputes, but their ability to apply a ceasefire is limited by their clan's division into numerous sub-clans with competing interests.

The Hawiye spokesman said the deal also covered the Somali troops who rely on their well-trained and well-equipped Ethiopian counterparts for firepower against the insurgents.

The government, which has vowed to keep fighting until it defeats the insurgency, accepted the idea of a ceasefire but said it should have been involved in the talks. The government did not participate because the Hawiye elders do not recognize its legality.

"A ceasefire, if any, should be reached and signed with the government if necessary," said spokesman Hussein Mohamed Muhamoud.

But he conceded: "It is good to hear from killers and violent people that they will respect peace."

Clan sources said the agreement was the first since Somali-Ethiopian forces routed the Islamist fighters from much of south and central Somalia in January, sparking a deadly guerrilla-style insurgency that has left scores dead.

However, Somali clans have been notorious in violating truce agreements in the past.

Western intelligence sources have warned that Somalia risks becoming a terrorist haven if efforts to empower the government fail in the face of fierce opposition from clan warlords.

A small force of some 1,500 Ugandan troops is in Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping mission aimed to help government troops regain control and enable Ethiopian forces to leave.

The United Nations on Thursday condemned the latest flare up and called for an immediate truce to allow access of humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of displaced civilians.

Somalia has in been in turmoil since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siyad Barre cleared the way for a deadly power struggle.

Source: AFP