The leaders of Somalia's powerful Islamist movement met on Tuesday with the influential speaker of the country's parliament in a new bid to avert all-out war with the weak government, officials said.
The Islamists' supreme leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden were discussing ways to save peace talks that collapsed last week amid growing fears of conflict that could engulf the region, they said.
"We hope that the outcome of this meeting will be acceptable to both sides and will rescue the failed process," said Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, the deputy security chief in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS).
The meeting came on the third day of a government-unauthorised mission by Aden to Mogadishu and a senior government official said he personally thought the talks were "futile and a waste of time."
But lawmakers accompanying Aden to the meeting gathered in the dusty outpost of Afgoye, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) west of the capital, said they optimistic the stalled peace process could be restarted.
"We are hopeful about this meeting," member of parliament Saleeban Olad told AFP from Afgoye. "I hope it will be fruitful and can pave the way for a reconciliation meeting somewhere in Somalia."
In the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, Somali deputy prime minister Abdullahi Sheikh Ismail said he held out little hope for Aden's mission, which the government had asked him to delay to co-ordinate strategy.
"If the speaker convinces the Islamists to stop their reckless military behaviour and if he convinces them to abide by earlier agreements, we will welcome this individual effort," he said, referring to a truce reached at a first round of peace talks in June.
"But for me, the efforts are futile and waste of time," Ismail told a group of lawmakers in a briefing on the failure of a third round of Sudanese-hosted peace talks at which he led the government delegation.
Aden is the most senior Somali politician to visit Mogadishu since the Islamists seized it from US-backed warlords in June and have since taken control of most of southern and central Somalia, imposing strict Sharia law.
He travelled to the city on Sunday, three days after Sudanese-hosted peace talks failed, over the objections of the government, which is based in Baidoa, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.
With government and Islamist forces girding for battle outside Baidoa, Aden rejected the government's appeal, saying he was seriously concerned about war that could spread throughout the Horn of Africa.
After initial talks on Sunday, the Islamists said they were ready to resume talks with the government based on a proposal by Aden and that details of their acceptance would be worked out on Tuesday.
The Islamists had refused to meet face-to-face with the government in Khartoum, demanding first the withdrawal of Ethiopia troops allegedly in Somalia and the removal of Kenya as co-mediator along with the Arab League.
The government and Addis Ababa deny claims there are thousands of Ethiopian soldiers on the ground but Ethiopia has vowed to defend itself and the administration from the Islamists, some of whom are accused of Al-Qaeda ties.
Meanwhile, tension remained high in north-central Somalia, a day after Muslim gunmen clashed with local militia in Somali's semi-autonomous north-east enclave of Puntland, where authorities fear an Islamist advance.