Somalis head for Sudan talks to avert war

MOGADISHU, June 21 (Reuters) Sudan's President will try to mediate tomorrow between Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers and Somalia's interim government in Arab League-sponsored talks to avert a new war in the Horn of Africa nation.

Tensions have risen between the government and the Islamists since the latter kicked secular warlords out of Mogadishu on June 5 and went on to seize a strategic swathe of Somalia.

The government's call for international peacekeepers and its assertion that Muslim fundamentalists from around the world helped the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) secure its victory in Mogadishu have infuriated the Islamists.

The two sides seemed unlikely even to meet face-to-face.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is to lead the Khartoum talks under the auspices of the Arab League.

President Abdullahi Yusuf, whose weak interim government is based in the provincial town of Baidoa, was on his way to Sudan for the talks. ICU chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was sending a 10-man delegation.

''The government will not meet with the Islamic courts face-to-face but will agree after their meeting with the Sudanese president on when and where to hold talks inside Somalia,'' government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters.

Ahmed, the moderate face of the ICU, said in Mogadishu the talks were ''an opportunity to present the political view of the Islamic Courts to the international community.'' Foreign powers are scrambling to react to the Islamists' takeover of Mogadishu, and fear conflict with the government.

''The meeting tomorrow in Khartoum is crucial,'' said a Western diplomat. ''Even if there is no substantial agreement ...

just sitting together would be a step forward.'' After the Islamist victory there was hope they would work with the government -- formed in neighbouring Kenya in 2004 -- to install the first truly national administration for 15 years.

But the two sides quickly moved apart. The Islamists accuse Yusuf of encouraging an incursion by his ally, Ethiopia. The government says that is a lie to justify an attack on Baidoa.

''STOP EXPANDING'' Abdirahim Isse, a close aide to Ahmed, said the ICU may reconsider its decision to hold dialogue if the government does not change its mind on the foreign peacekeepers' issue.

''Our stand on that is very clear, we don't want foreign troops in our country while the government has been the one pushing for the troops to be deployed,'' he said.

The United States has convened an international ''Contact Group'' to look at ways to prevent fighting, while the United Nations and African Union are planning to send missions.

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer declined to answer questions about Washington's widely-assumed support for the defeated warlords but warned the Islamic militia not to expand their territorial control.

''They need to stop in their tracks. Their movement out makes all of us question their motives,'' she said on a visit to Kenya.

REUTERS VJ BST0044