Somali government "confident" despite resignations

BAIDOA, Aug 3 (Reuters) Somalia's interim government said today it was confident of surviving a political crisis brought by resignations of top ministers and dismissed plans by a breakaway faction to attend peace talks with Islamists.

A series of resignations by ministers and junior ministers have hit Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's government since last week, threatening the fragile Western-backed administration.

Health Minister Abdi Aziz Sheik Yusuf was the latest to resign today together with the assistant minister for civil affairs and human rights, bringing to 36 the number of senior officials who have quit the government.

The ministers have cited Gedi's reluctance to reach out to rival Islamists as their reason for resigning.

''Our government is a reconciliation government, the prime minister has failed to honour that,'' Yusuf said.

But a government spokesman said the cabinet would continue working despite the resignations.

''We have no worries at all,'' spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told Reuters in Baidoa, the provincial seat of the government set up in 2004 in the 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since 1991.

''We know there is a crisis but the prime minister has the confidence of members of parliament and the public ... ,'' he said.

''Due to that we are confident the government will continue working.

In the coming few days, the prime minister will fill the vacant cabinet positions.'' Gedi received a boost after parliament failed to pass a vote of no confidence vote against him over the weekend.

Officials say the resignations could clear the way for the newly powerful Islamists, who control the capital Mogadishu and a swathe of the south, to take ministerial posts.

The Islamists, however, have not indicated whether they are interested in power-sharing and some fear they are bent on taking all of Somalia and imposing hardline sharia law.

Dinari criticised plans by a parliment faction to send a delegation to Khartoum led by the speaker to negotiate with the Islamists. Gedi had called for the talks to be postponed.

''I don't know what the speaker is going for. He has no mandate to represent the government,'' Dinari said.

The Islamists have received support from ordinary Somalis for bringing some kind of order to Mogadishu, including the reopening of the capital's international airport last month.

REUTERS DKB BD1554