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Somali militia chief refuses talks unless foreign troops leave

The leader of an Islamic militia that holds much of southern Somalia rebuffed UN attempts to arrange peace talks, saying he would not negotiate with the country's virtually powerless government while foreign troops are in Somalia.

Soldiers from neighboring Ethiopia crossed the border five days ago to protect Somalia's government from the militia's advances, according to widespread witness accounts. The reports have enraged Somalis, who have long-standing tensions with Ethiopia.

"Until Ethiopian troops leave Somali soil, we will never negotiate with the government," militia leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys said on Tuesday.

Aweys has been accused of having links to al-Qaeda.

A more moderate member of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council, however, left open the possibility for talks after a meeting in Mogadishu with Francois Lonseny Fall, the UN's special representative to Somalia.

Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed said the group's "peace committee" still had to consider the UN's call for negotiations next week in Khartoum, Sudan.

In what appeared to be a nod to the reports of Ethiopian troops, Fall told reporters: "The UN is always calling on maximum restraint from neighboring countries and for them not to interfere at this particular moment in Somalia."

He also praised the Islamic union after seeing the streets of Mogadishu without road blocks or gunmen.

"I take note that [the Islamic council] has achieved great things in Mogadishu. I have seen it," Fall said after attending afternoon prayers with Islamic officials.

The Islamic militia's seizure of power has prompted grave concerns in the US, which accuses the group of harboring al-Qaeda leaders responsible for deadly 1998 bombings at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The UN sent Fall to Somalia on Tuesday to urge the government and the Islamic militia to attend peace talks. His meeting with the government in Baidoa -- the only town controlled by the fragile administration -- ended on a promising note.

"We will go to Khartoum without any preconditions," Abdirizak Adam, President Abdullahi Yusuf's chief of staff, said after the meeting in the presidential compound.

After Aweys' announcement, a government spokesman said talks still could go on with moderate members of the Islamic militia.
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