U.S.-backed panel set to meet in Kenya over Somalia

A United States-backed international panel is to meet in Kenya on Friday to urge rival parties in Somalia to discuss ways of stabilizing the lawless nation, a senior Kenyan official confirmed on Thursday.

Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya's Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju said senior diplomats from the International Contact Group on Somalia, which consists of the European Union, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Tanzania, Britain and the United States, would also discuss peace building and reconstruction.

"We believe that the Somalis should come together, they should work together, there should be reconciliation as much as possible because at the end of day it's their country," Tuju told a news conference in Nairobi.

Tuju said the diplomats would also examine ways to quickly install an all-African peacekeeping force, which is expected to replace Ethiopian troops whose lightning invasion ousted Islamic fundamentalist forces last week from Mogadishu.

The contact group has discussed the need for African peacekeepers and a unity government for some time with little progress.

The Friday meeting comes as Kenya sent extra troops to the Somali frontier, stepped up security checks and said on Thursday it saw no reason for Somalis to flee, underlining fears about Somali Islamic militants slipping across the border after losing a power struggle.

The contact group was formed by the United States after a Washington-supported warlord alliance was driven from Mogadishu in June after months of fighting with the Islamists, some of whom Washington accuses of links with Al-Qaeda.

Source: Xinhua