Somalia's PM wants to talk to insurgents

By Abdiaziz Hassan

DJIBOUTI (Reuters) - Somalia's new Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke said in an interview he wants to meet hardline Islamist insurgents and use dialogue to end violence that has plagued the country for nearly two decades.

Sharmarke, the Western-educated son of an assassinated former leader, was chosen by Somalia's new president last week to form an inclusive government to unite and bring peace to the Horn of Africa nation.

Analysts say Sharmarke, who worked for the United Nations in Sierra Leone and Sudan, along with moderate Islamist President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, are offering a new political dynamic that could rescue Somalia from its downward spiral.

The main threat to stability comes from the hardline Islamist rebel group al Shabaab, which is fighting the Western-backed government and wants to impose its strict version of Islamic law throughout the country.

"We need to know what the argument of al Shabaab to fight today is, what kind of argument they can use even to reject either the president or me," Sharmarke, 48, told Reuters in an interview late on Sunday.

"I don't think there is any case for them to fight today and we call on them to actually look at where the country has been for the last 18 years. And, definitely, we are trying to sit and talk with them," he said.

Washington says al Shabaab is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia and the group is known to have foreign fighters in its ranks. It has gained support, and territory, over the past two years as it fought Ethiopian troops propping up the government.

Islamist rebels have already denounced Sharmarke as an "illegitimate" imposition from abroad.