In this file picture, displaced Somali families sit under a tree at Elesha Biyaha settlement on the southern outskirts of Mogadishu, April 8, 2007. Government forces and clan militia clashed in northern Mogadishu on Wednesday, as continued insecurity in the Somali capital delayed a national reconciliation meeting seen as critical to a viable state. REUTERS/Shabelle Media

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU, April 11, 2007 – Government forces and clan militia clashed in northern Mogadishu on Wednesday, as continued insecurity in the Somali capital delayed a national reconciliation meeting seen as critical to a viable state.

Residents heard the rattle of small arms in the fighting, which killed at least three combatants and ended more than a week of relative calm after March 29-April 1 battles claimed more than 1,000 lives, according to local investigators.

That fighting subsided after the capital's dominant Hawiye clan brokered a truce with Ethiopian soldiers protecting the Somali interim government. But the sight of Hawiye and Islamist militia digging trenches has fuelled fears of new violence.

"Some of our men have been defending themselves against the government," Hawiye elder Hussein Siyaad told Reuters, adding that Ethiopian forces were not involved in the clashes.

"The ceasefire has not been affected by the skirmishes."

Malun Abdi, a Somali living close to the scene of the fighting, said she saw the bodies of two clansmen.

"They were still holding their AK-47s. They must have been insurgents because they were not wearing government uniform," she said.

Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Gele said the government side had also suffered casualties.

"The government have lost one soldier and three other soldiers were wounded," he told Reuters.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said the recent battles were the lawless city's worst for more than 15 years.

They were triggered when government and Ethiopian forces began a disarmament drive that grew into an offensive to crush insurgents before a planned April 16 reconciliation meeting.

A senior Arab League official, Samir Hosni, told Reuters that conference had now been postponed for one month until mid-May because of insecurity.

The interim government, formed in 2004, has struggled to impose its authority over Mogadishu since defeating rival Islamist leaders in a lightning New Year campaign backed by Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and warplanes.

SHARP DIVISIONS

It has faced almost daily attacks by Islamist and Hawiye fighters who oppose Ethiopia's involvement in the Horn of Africa country and accuse the government of favouring President Abdillahi Yusuf's Darod clan.

Diplomats say the government's legitimacy hinges on its ability to include all Somalis at the reconciliation meeting.

Exposing sharp divisions in the administration, Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said it was too late for the government to salvage any credibility and that its mandate had collapsed.

"The credibility of the whole (government) has been compromised ... It has collapsed," he told foreign journalists in Eritrea, neighbouring Ethiopia's arch foe.

Aideed said fresh peace talks should be held outside Somalia, and he blamed the recent bloodshed on Ethiopia.

"The invading Ethiopian troops have destroyed a 10-km sq (area of the city in which) 1,086 civilians have been killed ... A massacre has happened," he said.

An Ethiopian spokesman rejected Aideed's comments as propaganda inspired by Eritrea.

" Ethiopia and ( Somalia's government) have taken measures against terrorists engaged in destructive activities designed to derail the peace process in Somalia," said Bereket Simon, special advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Wright in Cairo, Jack Kimball in Asmara and Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)

Sources: Reuters