Mubarak says Egypt to help rebuild Somalia

Egyptian President Husni Mubarak told visiting Somali faction leaders in Cairo on Thursday that Egypt would help to rebuild Somalia, the Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa said Mubarak's talks with rival Somali faction leaders Ali Muhammad Mahdi and Husayn Farah Aydid showed the importance of cooperation between Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) the Organisation of African Unity, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League to offer assistance to the Somalis.

Musa said the Cairo talks followed peace efforts made by Ethiopia and the IGAD member states under the umbrella of the OAU, the agency reported.

The Somali faction leaders reached a reconciliation agreement in Cairo on Monday.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.