Nairobi — Hussein Haji Bod, a former faction leader, who joined the Transitional National Government (TNG) earlier this year, has gone to Ethiopia, where opposition leaders are meeting.

Interviewed in Nairobi on Friday, he denied that he intended to join the opposition. He told IRIN that he had been invited by the Ethiopian government to discuss mediation issues between the Somali interim government and Ethiopia.

Sources in the TNG in Mogadishu told IRIN that Bod met with both the president and prime minister in Mogadishu before leaving for Ethiopia, and that he had been given a message to convey to the Ethiopian government. Bod threw his support behind the TNG in January.

Meanwhile, faction leaders opposed to the government continued with the meeting in Awash, 150 km east of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, local and international media said.