CAIRing And Sharing

Somalia's Islamic rebels have agreed to:

...respect the legitimacy of the fragile government and continue talks despite a rebuff by the president

The talks aren't actually with the Somali government but with the Arab League:

President Abdullahi Yusuf decided on Friday to boycott talks in Sudan this weekend meant to avert war between his government and the Islamist movement which has seized the capital and part of the south, threatening his administration's limited power.

Despite the rebuff, Islamist delegates flew to Khartoum on Friday and held initial discussions with the Arab League, which brokered a first round of talks on Somalia last month.

"They stressed the importance of saving the legitimacy of the government ... their readiness not to escalate against the government and in particular not to make any attacks against Baidoa," Arab League envoy Zeid al Sabban said.

"They stressed that they want to open a frank discussion with the government ...(and) are in total readiness to pave the way for the government to return to Mogadishu," Mr Sabban said.

That's nice. Give us what we want and we'll let you come back to your capital.

Meanwhile, here's how they do it in the United States.

-- Nick