Sunday October 24, 2004 1:01 AM
By ANTHONY MITCHELL
Associated Press Writer
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - The European Union will help rebuild conflict-ravaged Somalia, but the cost is not clear, the EU's foreign policy chief said Saturday.
Immediate priorities are getting a government in place and disarming armed groups so that Somalia can stabilize, said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana after meeting Somalia's new President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Yusuf was sworn in on Oct. 14 at a ceremony attended by 10 African leaders after a 275-member transitional parliament elected him in Nairobi, in neighboring Kenya, because of insecurity in Somalia.
``The country has suffered a lot and it is time to reconstruct the country and reconcile the country,'' Solana told journalists while on a two-day trip to Ethiopia.
Solana said that while providing security in Somalia should remain the task of Africans, the EU was willing to continue support and training in technical areas.
``We will be able to help, but the ownership of this belongs to the Africans,'' he said.
At a meeting Saturday with the chairman of the African Union's Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, Yusuf asked for 20,000 peacekeepers from the 53-nation AU, said Adam Thiam, a spokesman for Konare.
The AU's Peace and Security Council will met with Yusuf on Monday to discuss the details of a peacekeeping mission, Thiam said.
The Horn of Africa country has been divided into fiefdoms ruled by rival warlords since 1991, when longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
Somalia's conflict has left more than 500,000 people dead, 2 million driven from their homes and 1.5 million refugees in neighboring countries. The new government has no civil service, treasury or even buildings to meet in.
Solana said he had no idea what the cost of rebuilding Somalia would be, and said that Yusuf had no concrete plans for reconstruction.
The United Nations has estimated that at least $5 billion will be needed to rebuild Somalia in the long term.
Solana said a donors conference on Somalia will take place on Oct. 28 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Yusuf still has to name a prime minister, who in turn will name a Cabinet.