Somalia's interim government and rival Islamists resumed direct peace talks on Saturday at Khartoum, capital of Sudan, more than two months after the rivals agreed a pact to cease hostilities, although both sides have traded accusations claiming violations of the truce.

Diplomatic sources close to the talks said the Arab League- sponsored meeting will discuss power sharing between the sides as urged by a group of states working to promote peace and development in the troubled Horn of Africa country, according to reports reaching here. Security and military issues will also be tackled.

Another key issue will be the presence of foreign peacekeepers, which the Islamists oppose.

The government has been criticized for sanctioning the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil while the Islamists have been accused of seeking to expand their territorial control.

The government has insisted on the need for foreign troops to help stabilize the war-ravaged country, but the Islamists object to Ethiopia contributing to any force.

Francois Lonseny Fall, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative, has repeatedly called for dialogue in recent weeks to defuse tensions in Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other..

Somalia's weak transitional government has announced it was willing to offer its Islamic rivals who control most of southern Somalia some cabinet posts and positions in the judiciary and government departments.

Somali officials attending the talks confided that the offer for government would have a clan-based formula that was used in 2004 during the reconciliation conference in neighboring Kenya.

"The Islamic courts are coming from one clan, which is Hawiye, and the Somali government was built on the basis of (the clan- based formula), so they can only fill the position of their clan," Mohamud Said Aden, minister for national assets and procurement, reportedly said.

Both sides say they are optimistic about the talks.

The head of the government delegation, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, said the talks would lead to a "bright and better future for the Somali people."

Aden, who is also the speaker of the transitional parliament, said that neither the transitional government nor the Supreme Council of Islamic Courts had "a hard-line attitude towards pacifying Somalia."

East African diplomats have been trying for several months to bring the Islamists and the government together for talks and analysts say the issue of Ethiopian troops in Somalia is likely to prove a thorny one.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a seven- member regional grouping, said preparations have been made to dispatch African peacekeeping troops to Somalia by October.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki agreed during talks in Nairobi on Tuesday to support the deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia to ensure political stability.

And on Friday the pan African body, the Africa Union, authorized the IGAD to mobilize a peacekeeping force for Somalia, but Kenya has indicated that more troops could be sought from African countries outside the region.

A Ugandan battalion is the first contribution announced so far from the IGAD to form the core of the force to be known by its acronym as IGASOM.

"The decision has been taken by the AU to authorize the deployment of IGASOM for peacekeeping operation in Somalia," AU's Peace and Security Council said in a statement.

"The meeting urges the commission to initiative the required consultations with the EC and other partners in order to mobilize resources and logistical support for the deployment of IGASOM," it added.

"So far we are working based on the IGAD countries which committed troops for the operation. The IGAD decision referred to Uganda and Sudan, but it does not mean that other IGAD members will not provide some support -- such as training," AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said.

The AU is expected to forward its decision to the UN Security Council in about a week for endorsement.

The peace support mission aims at strengthening the transitional government's limited authority in the southern and central regions of Somalia, including Mogadishu.

But the Islamists, who seized Mogadishu from factional warlords in June, have vowed to resist at any cost the deployment of peacekeepers.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the spiritual head of the Islamic forces, has openly threatened Kenya and Ethiopia for attempting to intervene.

Aweys has warned that Islamists will wage a holy war against any foreign invasion.

The toothless administration, based in the town of Baidoa for fear of violence in the capital Mogadishu, said it feared the Islamists would try to seize the provincial outpost and impose Islamic Sharia law across the country.

The Arab League initiative was part of international efforts to restore peace and stability to Somalia and end competition between different factions to fill the power vacuum.

On June 22, the transitional government and the Islamists signed a preliminary accord after the latter routed a U.S.-backed alliance of warlords from Mogadishu, after fierce battles that alarmed many.

At the time, the two sides agreed to meet again on July 15 to thrash out security and governance arrangements, but since then the Islamists had further expanded their territory, drawing charges that they reneged on the deal.

The United States, other Western countries and the UN have all backed the Arab League initiative to bring the Islamists and the government to peace talks in a bid to prevent conflict.

But the two sides are embroiled in long-standing disputes, notably over any deployment of foreign peacekeepers.

Source: Xinhua