Somali sides urged to find peace

Islamists of the UIC ruled Somalia for much of 2006

A UN-backed peace conference on resolving Somalia's crisis has opened in neighbouring Djibouti.

Representatives from the government and Islamist opposition are attending but are refusing to talk directly.

"I call on them to think of the terrible political, security and humanitarian crisis in their country," UN envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah urged.

In the latest violence, three civilians were killed south of the capital after an Ethiopian convoy was ambushed.

Ethiopian troops are in Somalia supporting a transitional government, but an insurgency has led hundreds of thousands of Somalis to flee their homes.

The people who are coming in are mainly women and children; they're coming in very tired some of them have travelled for a long time UNHCR's Emmanuel Nyabera Security nightmare

The UN refugee agency says that around 1,000 refugees from the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere are crossing into Kenya each week even though the border has been officially closed for more than a year.

"We have more people coming in and we're just getting concerned that the [Dadaab] camp is getting more and more congested," UNHCR spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera told the BBC's World Today programme.

"The people who are coming in are mainly women and children; they're coming in very tired some of them have travelled for a long time hiking lifts from vehicles, at times walking by foot."

'Optimism'

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in the capital says Islamist insurgents led the attack near the town of Lego, about 110km to the south of Mogadishu, on Monday and three vehicles were destroyed.

Al-Shabab is fighting for Ethiopian troops to leave Somalia

Witnesses says three people were killed in fighting afterwards.

Islamists of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) ruled much of Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian forces backed by Somali government troops, who have been struggling to exert their control over the country ever since.

Al-Shabab, the militant wing of the UIC which is behind much of the latest violence, is not attending the talks in Djibouti.

But Mr Ould-Abdallah expressed optimism that the meeting could help end the violent conflict.

His statement said that he was "pleased that Somali leaders have put the wellbeing of their country and the safety of their countrymen as their priority".

Somalia has been without a central government for 17 years.