Addis Ababa — Three of Mogadishu's main faction leaders are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet with other Somali faction leaders opposed to the interim government of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan.

One of the faction leaders, Usman Hasan Ali Ato told IRIN from Addis Ababa that the initiative was not an Ethiopian one, and that no officials had been met. He said Addis Ababa was being used as "neutral ground" for the meeting. "We are here to talk among ourselves and with other political leaders from the south currently in Addis," Usman Ato told IRIN by telephone. The faction leaders left Nairobi on 2 March for Addis Ababa.

Hussein Mohamed Aydid, Usman Hasan Ali Ato, and Muse Sudi Yallahow - who together control parts of north, south and southwest Mogadishu - announced before they left Nairobi that they had "definitely resolved our differences" and were now seeking a new " broadly participated" reconciliation conference. It was the first time the three had travelled together, sources close to the faction leaders said.

Colonel Abdullahi Yusuf, president of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeast Somalia; Hasan Mohamed Nur "Shatigadud", leader of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA); General Aden Abdullahi Nur "Gabyow", of the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM); General Mohamed Said Hersi "Morgan", and General Omar Haji Masale of the Somali National Front (SNF), are all in Addis Ababa for the meeting, news agencies said.