Key Somali warlord Hussein Mohamed Aidid refuses to recognize President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan as head of state despite a peace-building meeting in Libya last week, one of Aidid's aides said Monday.
"Aidid and other faction leaders in Libya agreed with Salat to make peace as a group leader without recognizing him as a legitimate leader of Somalia," Issa Mohamed Siad said.
Siad is the acting chairman of Aidid's United Somali Congress/Somali National Alliance (USC/SNA) faction, which is one of the strongest clan-based movements to have established territorial rule since the collapse of central government in 1991.
Salat, elected Somalia's first head of state in almost a decade last month, had talks with Aidid in the Libyan town of Sirte under the auspices of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
"An all-inclusive national peace conference will be held in Somalia soon to form a government," Said told AFP.
The two men were then received by Kadhafi, who said Libya is ready to help rebuild Somalia, according to Libya's official JANA news agency.
Many Somali civic groups and community leaders welcomed Salat's election in Djibouti last month by members of a new transitional assembly, which made him Somalia's first head of state since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Aidid, however, has been among a majority of clan-based faction leaders who have vehemently rejected the entire Djibouti process. These warlords who rule different parts of Somalia have battled for authority since Barre's overthrow -- MOGADISHU (AFP)
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