Ethiopia, Somali Islamists to hold talks in Kenya Thursday

Dec 27, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Kenya plans to hold talks with Somalia’s embattled Islamic leaders in a bid to end escalating fighting with Ethiopian forces backing government, diplomats said Wednesday.

The talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday “will seek ways to urgently end the conflict,” a diplomatic source said, requesting to remain unnamed.

The diplomat said that the Islamic courts leadership has confirmed participation.

Asked if Ethiopia and the Somali government would participate in the talks, the diplomat said: “We will deal with only those whom we can manage.”

On Tuesday, the Kenyan government urged Ethiopia to halt military operations against Somali Islamist forces, warning that that violence could complicate, instead of solve, the problem in Somalia.

Kenya, which mediated the convoluted peace talks that ended in the creation of the Somali interim government in 2004, faces the propects of receiving additional Somali refugees should the situation escalate in the lawless African nation.

Some 160,000 Somali refugees, who fled the 15-year conflict in Somalia, are currently hosted by Kenya.

(AFP)