Somali govt to meet rivals next month

Somalia’s transitional government will meet next week for peace talks with Islamic militant rivals who have seized control of much of the country, a presidential aide said today.

“We will go to Khartoum without any pre-conditions,” Abdirizak Adam, President Abdullahi Yusuf’s chief of staff said after meeting Francois Lonseny Fall, the special representative to Somalia of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.