The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Asmara

An exiled leader of Somalia's Islamists has rejected a call by Somalia's new prime minister for talks to try to end 16 years of conflict and stem a year-long insurgency that has killed some 6,000 civilians.

"Our problem is not with the old prime minister or the new prime minister. Our problem is Ethiopia's occupation," Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who is now chairman of the opposition Alliance For the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), told Reuters.

Ahmed's Islamist courts' movement ruled Mogadishu for six months last year, until it was routed by Ethiopia's army backing forces from the interim Somali government. "If the Ethiopian occupation is removed then everything is possible.