BAIDOA, Somalia Nov 2, 2007 – Somalia's interim president is holding back-to-back meetings and consultations in the southern town of Baidoa in search for a new prime minister.

Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, the former Somali premier, resigned last Sunday after pressure from Addis Ababa and Washington, D.C., two of the Somali government's closest allies.

President Abdillahi Yusuf met with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin in Baidoa on Wednesday. The two officials are believed to have discussed at length proposals for a new prime minister, as well as the prevailing security situation in the capital Mogadishu.

Confidential sources in the Cabinet and the parliament underlined to Garowe Online that both the U.S. and Ethiopian governments will have “big influence” in Yusuf’s selection for a new prime minister.

Analysts say the U.S. government is pushing for President Yusuf to appoint a member of the opposition, especially an Islamic Courts-linked politician Washington considers a moderate voice.

Washington 's concerns were reinforced when caretaker Prime Minister Salim Aliyow Ibrow said yesterday   that the government is “opening negotiations with the opposition” in the search for a new premier.

Prime Minister Ibrow said the government would consider the top post for the opposition "if they [opposition] calmed down.”

Islamist-led fighters have waged guerrilla-style war against Somali and Ethiopian government troops since February, leading to hundreds of deaths and displacing nearly a third of Mogadishu's civilian population.

Today, President Yusuf held a luncheon for the vast majority of lawmakers in a bid aimed at expressing his support for an amendment that would empower him to appoint an individual outside the parliament as the new prime minister.

The current law permits only   members of parliament to hold the post of premier or become a Cabinet minister.

Somali legislators were handed documents earlier this week signed at the conclusion of the clan-based national reconciliation conference. One of the signed clauses called for such an amendment.

Parliament is supposed to open debate on the NRC documents tomorrow (Saturday), according to legislative sources.

Source: Garowe Online

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