DUBAI, Feb 8 - An exiled leader of Somalia's opposition Islamists said on Friday they may accept talks to end a year-long insurgency that has killed some 6,500 civilians, if war crimes are punished and Ethiopian troops are withdrawn.

"This government has committed war crimes and high treason in Somalia and must be put on trial. But if they take bold measures ... on war crimes and the presence of Ethiopian troops, then we may accept to hold talks," said Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, an exiled leader of the Alliance For the Re-Liberation of Somalia.

"Before anything else, Ethiopian forces have to be withdrawn from Somalia, and problems of those displaced from the capital, ... have to be dealt with," Ahmed told Al Jazeera television.

"In the negotiations, the Alliance ... will represent the Somali people and we will hold talks with the international community about who would take part in the dialogue and what points to negotiate on," said Ahmed, who has been seen as a relative moderate among the Islamists.

Ahmed's Islamist courts' movement ruled the capital Mogadishu for six months in 2006, before it was ousted by Ethiopia's army backing forces of the interim Somali government.

The opposition alliance is made up of Islamists, former parliamentarians and diaspora members.

Hardline Islamists have led the insurgency throughout 2007 against the government and Ethiopian troops, during which at least 6,500 people have been killed and 600,000 have fled the capital.

(Reporting by Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Caroline Drees)

Source: Reuters