Italy says Afghan meet should look at Somalia

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Italy's foreign minister called Monday for an upcoming Afghanistan conference in London to also tackle the threat of extremism from Somalia and other countries. During a visit to Washington, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini highlighted Italy's commitment to fund the daily operations of ministries in Somalia, a former Italian colony that has lacked an effective government for nearly two decades.
"But Italy cannot do so alone," Frattini told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I will raise the point in London. While talking about terrorism, we have to take into consideration there is unfortunately a dissemination of terrorist cells not in Yemen only but in the Horn and in the north of Africa," he added. "This is a problem that concerns us all." Clinton and other foreign ministers will take part in the London talks Wednesday and Thursday, which are expected to look at ways to give Afghans greater control of security and provide incentives for fighters to leave the Taliban. The conference will also discuss Yemen, a growing topic of concern after a Nigerian who allegedly trained in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest nation was charged with trying to blow up a Northwest a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Detroit. The United States has also worried that Somalia, already a major source of piracy, could become a haven for extremists akin to the lawless border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In a shift, President Barack Obama's administration has shipped weapons to Somalia to help President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's embattled government fend off an offensive by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement. The State Department announced Monday that a senior official will travel this week to Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Maria Otero, the under secretary for democracy and global affairs, will start Tuesday with a visit to Somali refugee camps in Kenya's Dadaab region where she will take up issues including human rights, human trafficking and the environment, the State Department said.In Uganda, she will meet officials and human rights activists, it said. In Addis Ababa, Otero will lead the US delegation to the African Union summit. Other US officials to attend include Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for Africa, and Scott Gration, the special envoy for Sudan. Carson will travel separately to Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo along with Spain, where he will meet counterparts from the European Union, the State Department said.