JOWHAR, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Somalia's fledgling government has the right to arm and equip security forces to stamp its authority on the lawless country, in spite of a U.N. arms embargo, the nations leading its peace process said on Tuesday.
Foreign ministers from the east African mediation body IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development) met for the first time in Jowhar, Somalia's makeshift capital, and urged the new government to mend a rift that has split it in two.
"Somalia has a legitimate government, and in line with the Transitional Federal Charter, has a solemn right to establish, train and equip its law enforcement," a communique from IGAD's ministerial council said.
The ministers from Somalia's east African neighbours also recommended the deployment of a military observer mission and encouraged "all IGAD member states to establish diplomatic representations with the TFG (Transitional Federal Government)", as the African Union has done.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's movement of militiamen to Jowhar, 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, earlier this year sparked accusations that he was preparing for a war with the faction of his government which is based in the anarchic capital, Mogadishu.
Yusuf said the troops were recruits to help rebuild Somalia's security forces. The government faction he leads moved to Jowhar on the grounds that Mogadishu is too unsafe.
But a group of ministers led by powerful warlords have made their base in the capital and the split has all but paralysed government activity.
Many warlords, including those who serve as ministers in the administration, have been buying large shipments of weapons in case fighting breaks out, a report to the U.N. Security Council has said.
IGAD's communique angered some in the Mogadishu faction.
"IGAD has failed to bring a comprehensive disarmament plan just like the TFG," legislator Mohamed Jama said from the capital Mogadishu. "It's wrong for them to be one-sided."
The proposed military observer mission would precede the deployment of Ugandan and Sudanese troops to monitor reconciliation, observe cessation of hostilities and disarm armed factions.
But that deployment has been on hold since the U.N. Security Council has refused to lift a 1992 arms embargo to permit the troops to carry their heavy weapons into Somalia.
Somalia collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991 by warlords who turned it into a patchwork of fiefdoms ruled by rivals factions.
(By Mohamed Ali Bile, Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)