Somali President-elect Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed appealed to the warlords he defeated in Sunday's vote to reconcile and work alongside his incoming administration, speaking at a joint press conference with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi.
The 275-member interim legislature chose Yusuf from a field of 25 candidates after two years of peace talks hosted in Kenya. Yusuf had previously led the autonomous northeastern region of Puntland since 1998.
Somalia has had no recognized central government since Mohammed Siad Barre's dictatorship collapsed in 1991, leaving rival clan-based factions to contest territory and the country without working national systems of education, healthcare, or justice. Kibaki pledged Kenya's support for Somalia's recovery and urged Somalis to "forget the past and join hands."
Yusuf renewed his call for an international peacekeeping force. The African Union has discussed the idea but announced no plan. Two earlier interventions, a UN mission from 1992 to 1995 and a US force withdrawn after 18 soldiers died in Mogadishu in October 1993, both ended without restoring order.
His immediate priorities include naming a prime minister; his formal swearing-in may not occur until next week. Somaliland, a self-declared independent region in the northwest, has declined to participate in the process or accept its result.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.