The Somali Transitional Government says it is not willing to negotiate peace with Islamic militants, unless if they renounce rebellion.
This comes ahead of a two months Reconciliation Conference scheduled to take place in the Somali Capital Mogadishu next month.
The Foreign and International Cooperation Permanent Secretary, Ali D Farah and Dr. Yusuf Omar Al-Azhari an Advisor to President Abdullah Yusuf, says the militants must renounce rebellion if they are to participate in the reconciliation process.
The Somali Government is optimistic that the Conference will bring healing to the war-torn Horn of Africa country which has been stateless for over a decade.
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Last week, Uganda's Defence Minister Dr. Crispus Kiyonga said that the Government of Uganda was holding talks with militia groups in Somali in an attempt to woo them into dialogue with the Transitional Federal Government of President Abdullahi Yusuf.
Kiyonga said the talks are part of the mandate of the African Union Mission to Somalia (ANISOM) to support the reconciliation between the Transitional Federal Government and militia groups in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.
The two Government officials together with Somalia's Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Jeelle have been engaged in closed door meetings with Kiyonga and Chief of Defence Forces General Aronda Nyakairima in Kampala. Details of the meetings are sketchy but a statement issued after the meeting indicates that among other issues they discussed was the security situation in Somalia.
Reports from Somalia indicate that Helicopters and tanks pounded rebel positions across Mogadishu on Thursday as allied Ethiopian and Somali troops launched a major push to end a bloody insurgency, with at least 11 civilians reported killed.
