The international group excluded the Arab League and the interim Somali government from attending the meeting.

UNITED NATIONS — With the Arab League excluded from the meeting, a US-inspired international group on Somalia met in the United Nations on Thursday, June 15, to discuss a unified strategy on the country following the victory of the Islamic Courts over US-backed warlords.

The meeting brought together representatives from the United States, Norway, Britain, Sweden, Italy, the European Union and Tanzania at Norway's UN mission in New York, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Observers from the United Nations and African Union also showed up at the meeting, chaired by US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer.

But the Arab League, the pan-Arab umbrella body in which Somalia is a member, was excluded from the meeting.

No officials from the interim Somali government or Kenya, which played a crucial part in long-run Somali peace talks that led to the formation of the fragile government, were invited to the meeting as well, Reuters said.

Officials of the Group said "observers" from the Arab League and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an East African group that helped set up the Somali interim government, would attend the group's coming meeting next month in Sweden.

Washington called the meeting last week after the Islamic Courts claimed victory over the US-backed warlord Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).

The US has long supported the Somali warlords to uproot what Washington says Al-Qaeda operatives.

The courts have denied claims that they have links with extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda, and instead have outlined plans to restore stability in Somalia.

The United States led a military intervention into Somalia in 1992 but withdrew two years later after Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and the bloodied corpses of US servicemen dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. A UN peacekeeping force also failed.

"International Assistance"

Wrapping up their meeting, the international group called for ending fighting in Somalia to help establish peace there through enlisting "international assistance," Reuters reported.

"This group urges an immediate end to any fighting that is taking place in Somalia, and we recognize the need to continue to mobilize international assistance," said Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

"We are going to work together and end any safe haven of terrorism in Somalia," he added.

The group said in a statement that the "international community" must support the consolidation of representative and effective governance in Somalia to be "capable of addressing the needs of the Somali people as well as common international objectives."

The group also called for "dialogue and reconciliation" between the shaky interim government and all Somali parties.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told AFP that his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice had urged Oslo to head up peace efforts in Somalia.

"The secretary encouraged Norway to take its leading role forward and appreciated that Norway had taken this initiative to take this group together," Stoere said as he left the State Department.

Hundreds of Somalis took to the streets on Thursday to protest against plans to deploy IGAD peacekeepers in the country, which they fear that it would be a prelude to a potential western intervention, AFP reported.

Clans Backing

Fighters of Somali Islamic Courts cradle their weapons in Jowhar area after victory over the US-backed warlords. (Reuters)

On the ground, Islamic Courts leaders have secured the backing of influential clan elders overnight to set up a new system of governance for swathes of southern Somalia which they now control.

Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the head of the Joint Islamic Courts, sealed a deal with the traditional community leaders in Jowhar, a former stronghold of the US-backed alliance of warlords, who were routed from the town on Wednesday, AFP reported.

Public support has steadily grown for the Islamic militias, who have vowed to bring stability and order to the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

In a separate deal announced on Friday, June 16, the Islamic Courts reached agreement with the interim government, based in the southwestern city of Baidoa, to accept Yemeni mediation for peace talks.

A Yemeni official in Sanaa said Sheikh Ahmed and Somali interim president Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed had agreed to talks led by Yemen's president inside Somalia or in a neighbouring country.

Areas now under Islamic Courts' control include most of Mogadishu, Jowhar in neighbouring Middle Shabelle region, and several posts in Hiraan region further north, including Gialalassi town. All are former strongholds of the warlords alliance.

Several warlords have switched camps, abandoning the ARPCT and pledging allegiance to the courts.

Islamic commanders said their fighters were encountering little or no resistance from local clans formally allied to the warlords, as they pushed northwards along the main road towards neighbouring Ethiopia.

Warlords have controlled Mogadishu since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

The African country has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice.