Some Somali rebels to join government: FM

Somalia's embattled government is negotiating with Islamist rebels and has persuaded some of them to join its administration to try to end a deadly spiral of violence, the foreign minister said on Saturday.

"The government maintains its plans for reconciliation and we have started talking to the rebel groups of Hizb al-Islam and the Shabaab," Ali Ahmed Jama told reporters in Mogadishu.

"Some of them have already joined the government and we hope our mission for broader reconciliation will be fruitful soon," the minister, who was appointed last month, added without elaborating.

His comments came after a relative lull in the fighting that has devastated the capital since the Shebab, an al-Qaeda-inspired group, and the more political Hizb al-Islam movement launched a military offensive on May 7.

"We are working closely with community groups and the country will be under government control soon," Jama said.

Both rebel groups have vowed to continue their struggle against the internationally-backed transitional federal government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed until the departure of African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

Some of them have already joined the government and we hope our mission for broader reconciliation will be fruitful soon

Ali Ahmed -- Foreign minister

Digging trenches

Since he was elected president in January, the young Islamist cleric has failed to assert his authority on the troubled Horn of Africa nation and owes his survival chiefly to the AU contingent's protection.

Neither group immediately reacted to the government's renewed offer for reconciliation but a Shabaab commander said his group was continuing to beef up defenses to prevent a counter-offensive.

Shebab fighters on Saturday started digging trenches to block the streets in some neighborhoods of the capital.

"This is a military tactic, we are pre-empting any attacks from the enemies of Allah and have dug new trenches near the streets leading to their (the government's) positions," one commander told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of people, including many civilians, have died in four months of intense fighting in Mogadishu and tens of thousands have been forced to flee the coastal city.

More than 18,000 Somalis have been killed since the start of 2007 and another 1.4 million driven from their homes.

That has triggered one of the world's worst aid crises, with the number of people needing assistance leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million or half the population.

This is a military tactic, we are pre-empting any attacks from the enemies of Allah and have dug new trenches near the streets leading to their positions

Shebab fighters