Somali premier dissolves cabinet

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/africa/7146883.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The newly appointed prime minister of Somalia's transitional government, Nur Hassan Hussein, has said he is dissolving the cabinet.

Speaking in Baidoa, he said he meant to appoint new ministers, half of them from outside the transitional parliament set up three years ago.

The new cabinet would have much fewer than the current 30 members, he added.

Correspondents say Mr Hussein faces the difficulty of placating Somalia's main clans and sub-clans.

Many of them insist on being represented in the government.

Somalia has been politically fragmented since 1991, and the transitional government, faced with an insurgency, is dependent on international aid and Ethiopian military support to function.

International 'displeasure'

"After meeting my ministers I decided to form a new government," Mr Hussein told reporters in Baidoa, the southern town where the transitional parliament is based.

He added that "the international community [had] expressed their displeasure with the [small] number of ministers chosen from outside the parliament".

Mr Hussein was appointed prime minister in November to replace Ali Mohamed Ghedi, who had refused to negotiate with armed Islamists and other opposition groups.

A former policeman and head of the Somali Red Crescent organisation, he is seen as a neutral figure.

He is from the Hawiye clan, the largest in the capital Mogadishu, many of whom distrust President Abdullahi Yusuf, from the rival Darod group.

Somalia has not had a functioning national government since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991.