25 killed in Somalia clan battles

Reports from Somalia say at least twenty-five people have been killed in a new outbreak of fighting between rival clans.

Witnesses said the battles, between heavily-armed militiamen of the Hawadleh and Galjel sub-clans, took place on Monday in the Shabelle region, about ninety kilometres north of the capital, Mogadishu. Last month, at least eighteen people were killed in similar clashes.

Somalia -- which has had no central government for almost a decade -- is divided between warring clans.

But a peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti last month elected an interim parliament and President.

The new President, Abdulkassim Salad Hassan, returned to a big welcome in Somalia last week; he has now gone to the UN Millennium Summit in his bid to win international support. Several Somali militia leaders have come out against the new President.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service