Somalia`s New Top Diplomat Sees Lull In Violence

`The only remaining peg for the so-called militants to hang their hat on is the issue of AU (African Union) forces`, Omaar told Rueters.

The new Somali government's priorities are to stabilise Mogadishu, help the homeless, and build on a lull in violence between local factions in the Horn of Africa nation, the foreign minister said on Tuesday.

In his first interview since being appointed, Mohamed Abdullahi Omaar told Reuters an Islamist rebel attack at the weekend killing 11 African peacekeepers should not distract the world's attention from other encouraging progress for Somalia.

"The only remaining peg for the so-called militants to hang their hat on is the issue of AU (African Union) forces. Those events were tragic, yet they are no longer the key determinants in Somalia," Omaar said by telephone from neighbouring Djibouti.

"For the last 10 days, the issue of Somali-on-Somali conflict has practically disappeared. That is a huge transformation ... The media is psychologically behind, they have not caught up with the process in Somalia."

Omaar, a 55-year-old businessman and consultant who hails from Somalia's northwestern Somaliland region, was educated and has been based in Britain. He was picked to join the new unity government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed on Friday during a U.N.-brokered reconciliation process in the safety of Djibouti.

Ahmed, a moderate Islamist who used to lead a sharia courts movement, has chosen influential diaspora figures from prominent Somali families, like Omaar's, to try to widen both the government's popular appeal and international legitimacy.

"I am very pleased and excited with this opportunity. It is a historic moment if we seize it," said the father-of-three.

Omaar said the government's top priority would be to stabilise Mogadishu, which has borne the brunt of fighting in a two-year insurgency by Islamist militants, then the nation.

With the government trying to fuse the militias of former moderate Islamist opposition groups and the previous administration into a national security force, Omaar said he hoped government could re-locate to Mogadishu shortly.

"By the end of this month or early next month, I would expect cabinet to be there. Perhaps by the end of March, we will see parliament too," he said.

DIALOGUE WITH MILITANTS?

Most of the politicians are based in Djibouti at the moment, after militant Islamist group al Shabaab overran the parliamentary seat of Baidoa in January following the exit of Ethiopian troops propping up the former Somali government.

The government's next priority would be humanitarian, helping the hundreds of thousands of internal refugees who fled fighting in Mogadishu to return, the minister said.

"What Somalis are asking for is not hugely complicated. They want to live their lives, take their children to school, do their shopping, sleep in peace at night," he said.

"But normality now is seen as a miracle."

Fighting since early 2007 has killed at least 16,000 civilians and uprooted more than a million.

More than 3 million Somalis need urgent humanitarian aid.

Omaar, the brother of award-winning former BBC and now Al Jazeera journalist Rageh Omaar, has been a regular visitor to the self-declared independent region of Somaliland, but not visited Mogadishu since he left a manager's job there in 1985.

"I will be going to Mogadishu. There is no hesitation or doubt," said Omaar, who has dual British-Somali nationality.

Once the government returns, he hopes it will engage hardline groups like al Shabaab in dialogue.

Some of the insurgent leaders have vowed jihad and been organising anti-government demonstrations in some towns they control, but attacks in recent days have focused on the AU.

"There is a standing, open invitation for them to come on board," Omaar said. "Any issue can be put on the agenda. But Somalis will not accept demands being converted into violence. 99.9 percent of the population wants to end war."