By Louis Charbonneau
DJIBOUTI (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council arrived inDjibouti on Monday to meet key players in Somalia's conflict totry to persuade the disparate factions to help end fighting inthe Horn of Africa nation.
The Somali talks mark the start of a 10-day tour ofregional hot-spots that will bring diplomats from the 15-nationcouncil to Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, southern Sudan, theDemocratic Republic of Congo, Chad and Ivory Coast.
"We have to move forward. We don't have much time," SouthAfrican Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told reporters aboutSomalia.
The council is expected to meet Somali President AbdullahiYusuf, U.N. officials and Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the head of theEritrea-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS)among others.
"The fact that the leadership of the ARS is involved inthis process is an encouraging sign," Britain's U.N. envoy,John Sawers, told reporters.
But hardline figures, including Islamist insurgents, areboycotting talks in Djibouti.
Islamist-led insurgents have been battling theEthiopian-backed Somali government since early 2007 after theIslamic Courts movement was ousted from Mogadishu and much ofsouth Somalia.
The Security Council meetings are held in Djibouti becausenear-daily attacks in Somalia make it too dangerous to meetthere.
On Sunday, insurgents fired mortars at a plane set to takePresident Yusuf to Djibouti. He was unharmed but the incidenthighlighted the risks facing politicians in Somalia.
At least 6,500 people were killed and more than 1 millionSomalis displaced by fighting around Mogadishu last year.
Hundreds of thousands have died of conflict, famine anddisease since the collapse of a dictatorship brought anarchy in1991.
PESSIMISM
The divided opposition and the failure of previous attemptsat negotiating peace are among the reasons Somalia experts arepessimistic about the chances of a breakthrough in Djibouti.
A first session of U.N.-mediated talks was held in Djiboutiin mid-May but there was no face to face meeting between thegovernment and opposition.
Some Somali opposition officials based in Eritrea havedismissed the talks and say Sheikh Sharif and the othersattending do not represent them.
They set the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops as aprecondition for talks with the government.
A spokesman for the Shabaab militia, the armed wing of theIslamic Courts movement, ridiculed Islamists attending theDjibouti talks. The United States has called the group aterrorist organisation.
"They want to attend the conference because they are afraidto go into the list of terrorists, but our local mujahideenwill continue the fighting," Mukhtar Ali Robow told localmedia.
South African envoy Kumalo said the meetings represented a"great opportunity" for Somalis to try to find peace.
Kumalo said the council could offer an important carrot toSomalia -- U.N. peacekeepers. Last month the Security Councilpassed a resolution that said it would consider the possibilityof sending U.N. troops to Somalia to replace AU peacekeepers ifthe political atmosphere and security situation improved.
(Additional reporting by Abdi Sheik in Mogadishu; Writingby Jack Kimball; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
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