Mogadishu — Senior members of the Union of Islamic Courts and former Somali national army have convened on Tuesday in the capital Mogadishu over what they said the defense of Somalia against the minority Tigree government of Ethiopia.

2nd vice chair of the Islamic Courts executive council Sheik Abdulkadir Ali Omar and the national security secretary Sheik Yusuf Indho-adde were some of the senior Islamist members that attended the meeting.

Sheik Yusuf Indho-adde, who spoke at the meeting, said that after they had realized Ethiopia would not give up the interference and division of Somalia, they decided to cooperate with former national army and the Somali civilian population to defeat what Indho-adde called the reluctant enemy of the Ethiopian Tigree government.

"We are informing the international community to pressurize Ethiopia, which is great impediment to ongoing peace negotiations between us and the government", said Indho-adde.

The decisions produced in the meeting included that Ethiopia should withdraw its troops from Somalia entirely and that Islamic Courts are satisfied with the peace talks between them and the Somali government that will happen in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on October 30.

Col. Hashi Hassan Warsame Food-adde, the chair of Islamists and former national army committee relations, has also delivered a speech at the meeting, pointing out the national army were geared up to defend the country against Ethiopia.

Somalia's Islamic Courts had grabbed the capital Mogadishu early June this year from the defeated former US backed warlords who declared themselves Anti-terror Alliance and the Restoration of Peace.