A step forward for Somalia's government impasse

Somalia's president and parliament speaker agreed Thursday to end a rift that has paralyzed the anarchic nation, but a final declaration signed by the leaders did not say where the government would be based.

President Abdullahi Yusuf and speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan have been arguing over whether the government, now based in a northern city, should be moved to the capital Mogadishu as stipulated by a transitional charter.

But a copy of the final declaration, signed in Yemen which has been brokering the talks and obtained by Dalka Online, did not mention a venue for the government which analysts and diplomats who follow Somalia said weakened its potential impact.

The only concrete action proposed in the text is an accord to ask parliament to convene within 30 days inside Somalia.

That would be a first for the government since it returned home last year from Kenya, where it was formed in late 2004 at peace talks.

A Yemeni official close to the talks said the leaders intentionally omitted the location of the government to avoid angering faction chiefs in Somalia.

"In principle, they agreed that the government will first move to Baidoa and then Mogadishu," the official said.

The Government set its temporary base in Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, saying the capital was too dangerous to be the government's seat until it was pacified.

The final declaration said both leaders had agreed to "coordination between state organizations that was based on the total respect of the ... national charter."

"Both leaders have reached an agreement to start a new page and end their differences which have brought serious damage to the ... duties of the institutions and the spirit of the Somali people," said the declaration, signed in the Yemeni

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