Updates with quotes, details from Somalia)
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
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KHARTOUM, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Diplomats pressured Somali government and Islamist delegations on Tuesday to resume stalled talks seen as the best way to avert war in the Horn of Africa.Both sides were due to meet in Sudan's capital Khartoum from Monday. But the government team arrived late and the Islamists said there would be no talks at all unless thousands of Ethiopian troops they say have invaded Somalia were withdrawn.
The newly powerful religious movement also objected to Kenya co-chairing the negotiations with the Arab League, arguing Nairobi was biased because it already backed an African Union plan to deploy east African peacekeepers in the chaotic country.
Kenya chairs the regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which shepherded Somalia's peace process two years ago. But on Tuesday, Kenya's ambassador to Somalia said IGAD was ready to step back if that would help talks begin.
"If it will require the withdrawal of IGAD so the Somali people can agree, we are happy to play that role," Mohamed Affey told reporters. "IGAD will never be and has never been an impediment to the process."
Diplomats met both teams separately late on Monday, and said they hoped face-to-face talks between the sides might begin on Tuesday. Two previous rounds of talks have produced little.
A posse of diplomats, including African, Arab and U.N. officials, are in Khartoum to support the talks.
If the process collapsed this time because one side was being obstructive, the guilty party must be named, Affey said.
"The international community must place responsibility somewhere," he said.
"It cannot be shared, it has to be taken by a party, and you will know the party which takes responsibility."
REGIONAL WAR FEARS
The diplomats on Tuesday were to privately discuss among themselves, and later separately with their delegations, giving Sudan a leadership role in the talks.
"The idea is that Sudan, as an Arab League and IGAD member, sits on the podium and hosts (this round of) talks," one Western diplomat said. "Our role is to get the two sides talking. The process is more important because if it fails, that's it."
While the Islamists say Kenya is biased, the interim government also accuses the Arab League of bias. There was no immediate word from either side about the proposal on Sudan.
The rise of the Islamists, who control much of southern Somalia after seizing the capital Mogadishu in June, have isolated the provincially based administration and hampered its efforts to impose central rule on a country in chaos since 1991.
At the last talks in September, both sides agreed to create joint military forces and reconvene for power-sharing talks on political and security issues.
But security inside Somalia has deteriorated since then, with government and Islamist fighters facing off near a key southern town that has changed hands several times.
One Islamist commander on the frontlines told Reuters that after seizing the government's sole outpost Baidoa, they planned to unite the whole country, including the self-declared states of Puntland and Somaliland, under sharia law.
"We will not retreat, come what may," he said.
Fearing the standoff could spark a regional war sucking in Ethiopia and Eritrea, analysts say a truce is the priority.
Addis Ababa denies any incursion but says it has sent several hundred military trainers. Its old foe Eritrea denies charges of sending arms to the Islamists.
The Islamists say their priorities are restoring law and order, but critics say they harbour al Qaeda linked extremists. (additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Somalia)
Source: Reuters, Oct. 31, 2006