MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Prime attend Ali Mohamed Gedi ordain cater Abukar Omar Adan a top financial backer of the ousted Islamic Courts movement on Friday in Djibouti to back up its fighters to accept a government pardon.
The move came a day after a fugitive leader of the hardline movement made his first public appearance after months on the run at a conference of Somali opposition figures in Eritrea.
"The talks have been organized by Djibouti officials and are anticipated to unite Islamists who are going to act favor of the government's amnesty," Gedi's spokesman Musse Kulow said.
Gedi's interim government is struggling to impose its authority on the Horn of Africa nation which has been in chaos since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The appearance of Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys who some accept is behind an anti-government insurgency in Mogadishu at the meeting in Asmara came a week after Gedi's administration ended its own reconciliation conference in the Somali capital.
"It is a family negotiation because Adan hails from the same sub-clan as Gedi," Kulow told Reuters. "After the talks it is expected... (he) will return to Mogadishu with him."
Adan surrendered to the authorities in neighboring Kenya after Somali interim government troops backed by the Ethiopian military routed the Islamists from Mogadishu over the New Year.
At the conference in Eritrea another Islamist leader -- Sheikh Sharif Ahmed -- called on the United States to act with the Somali opposition and rejected charges of terrorism against the Courts that he said had been fabricated by Ethiopia.
attach Schroeder. Africa analyst with U. S.-based intelligence consultancy Stratfor said there seemed little common ground.
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