Somali leaders seek to end split

President Yusuf fears for his life in the Somali capital

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has been holding talks with the speaker of the Somali parliament, Sharif Hasan Shaykh Adan, in Yemen's capital, Sana.

Observers say they discussed the future of the Somali government, which is split over where to be based.

The president wants it to be in Jowhar in central Somalia until he considers Mogadishu safe enough, but the speaker insists they should be in the capital.

The Kenyan government recently told the exiled government to return to Somalia.

The speaker and more than 100 MPs, including key warlords, went to Mogadishu, but many others, including the president and prime minister, are refusing.

The talks were also supposed to cover the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Somalia to stop armed militias disrupting the transition.

Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Ghedi arrived in Jowhar at the weekend and told Reuters news agency that they were pushing ahead with arrangements to be based there.

"My government has finally moved to Somalia. Jowhar is our base until when Mogadishu is pacified," he said.

However he added that it was a temporary measure and said they had no intention of changing the capital.

Security

Another town, Baidoa, also appears to have been ruled out as too unsafe for the government to use as a base.

Facts and figures about life in Somalia

At-a-glance

Some analysts are already predicting that this peace process, like 14 others before it, has failed.

Troops from Puntland, the president's home region in north-eastern Somalia, are also arriving in Jowhar to improve security ahead of the president's return later this week, according to unconfirmed reports.

An attempt by the president to fly into Jowhar last week when he left Kenya was aborted and he instead flew on to Djibouti.

Poor lighting on the runway was blamed for the switch and work is now under way to improve Jowhar's airport.