Federal parliament to debate the Djibouti Agreement tomorrow

Somalia's federal transitional parliament will vote on a controversial power-sharing deal with an Islamist-led opposition faction on Wednesday, Radio Garowe reported.

Sheikh Adan "Madobe" Mohamed, the Speaker, told 145 MPs in the south-central town of Baidoa that interim President Abdullahi Yusuf is "missing without reason."

"I cannot think of [a reason] why President Yusuf is absent from this meeting, which he was supposed to attend," Speaker Madobe told lawmakers.

ADC Hall in Baidoa, where the parliament is based, was under tight security as lawmakers disagreed loudly over the course of recent events.

But Speaker Madobe adjourned the hectic day's session with a promise to commence debate on the Djibouti Agreement – a power-sharing deal that gives the opposition half the seats in parliament and demands a new election for president by January 2009.

'Cabinet meeting'

Also in Baidoa, 31 Cabinet ministers and vice-ministers held their first meeting at Hotel Bakin since gaining parliamentary approval a day earlier.

Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein chaired the meeting, which ended with a plan to formally request a parliament vote on the Djibouti Agreement.

President Yusuf has rejected the power-sharing deal as a "clan agreement," a comment rejected by both Prime Minister Nur Adde and opposition leader Sheikh Sharif.

On Tuesday, Yusuf appointed Mohamed Mohamud "Gamodheere" as the new Prime Minister two days after he "fired" Nur Adde.

Political deadlock within the UN-backed interim government has strengthened the Islamist insurgency, with Islamist militia now in control of vast territory in central and southern Somalia.