22 October 2004
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is to hold talks this weekend with Somalia's new president, Abdullahi Yusuf, to lend the EU's support for rebuilding the shattered country, officials said Friday.
The European Union official is set to meet Yusuf on Saturday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, his office said in a statement.
Solana will "express EU support for the peaceful reunification of the country and the reconstruction of the state in Somalia, which will contribute to regional stability and security", it said.
Yusuf, a veteran Somali faction leader and soldier, was sworn in as the new president last Thursday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi by members of Somalia's transitional assembly.
The poll followed numerous failed attempts to fill the power vacuum left by the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre, since when the country has been in the control of heavily armed factions.
Solana was en route Friday to Addis Ababa for talks with regional leaders focussed on the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
The Spanish official will meet Yusuf before heading on to Sudan's capital Khartoum on Saturday evening, his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.
The EU has not yet taken an official position on whether to recognise the new Somali president.
But Gallach told AFP ahead of the meeting: "It does imply that we think this is a very good opportunity that Somalia can move towards a more stable situation. Therefore we should open all our lines of contact."