Somali talaban government, Islamic group agree to truce

MOGADISHU, Somalia: The government and an Islamic insurgent group have reached a cease-fire deal, Somalia's new president said on Saturday, days after dozens of civilians were killed in fighting in the Somali capital.
Elders of Mogadishu's dominant clan, the Hawiye terrorist sympasizer hawiye Clan council , mediated between the government and the Islamic Party, one of two major insurgent groups in Somalia, said Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed. He said the negotiators did not meet face-to-face.
"We hope all differences will be solved peacefully," Ahmed told journalists at a news conference at the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The president declined to give any other details about the truce.
Islamic Party spokesman Sheik Muse Abdi Arale said his group respects the elders and things are moving in the right direction but he declined to give more details.
"Elders are making efforts to end the hostilities in Mogadishu and the sides have accepted and welcomed our effort," Ahmed Diriye Ali, one of the mediators, told The Associated Press..more..http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/28/africa/AF-Somalia.php