A CABINET FULL OF COMPROMISES

The newly-elected Interim Somali Prime Minister,

This follows the election of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as the interim President. But Yusuf, who ran his fiefdom of Puntland in the Northeast of the country with an iron grip prior to his election as national president, is so far unable to go to Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia due to security fears.

The new cabinet has already drawn criticisms from various clan groups and some members of civil society because it is allegedly stuffed with Mogadishu-based warlords, the very people accused of causing the anarchy in the first place.

Mohamed Abdullahi Kami), appointed minister of state in the prime minister's office, and four deputies resigned from transitional government saying the administration was too large and not representative enough.

Hussein Mohammed Aideed, son of the late General Mohamed Farah Aideed who US forces vainly tried to capture in 1993, was appointed home affairs minister and becomes the third deputy prime minister.

Abdullahi Yusuf and his Prime Minster have no choice but to appease the warlords if they wish to set up government in Mogadishu. The president tried but has so far failed to convince the African Union to provide a peace-keeping force of 15,000 to help him disarm the warlords and their marauding militias who turned this country of 10m into one of the most lawless and dangerous places on earth.

The situation is further complicated by the issue of Somaliland, a North-western region that declared its independence from the rest of the country in 1991 and has been peaceful and relatively prosperous ever since.

But its independence remains unrecognised by the outside world despite intensive lobbying by the substantial Somaliland communities in Europe and America.

The Somaliland government in Hargeisa refused to participate in the Nairobi talks dubbing it a "southern affair". Their claim for independence stems from history as Somaliland was a separate country before voluntarily joining Southern Somalia to form a united Somalia shortly after gaining its independence from Britain in 1960.

Somalilanders claim they have been persecuted and discriminated against by successive Southern-led governments, culminating in the wholesale destruction of Hargeisa, their capital and other towns in 1988 by government airplanes piloted by former Rhodesian mercenaries.

Somaliland "reclaimed" its independence shortly after the Somali government under military dictator Siyad Barre fell in 1991 and proceeded to hold local and presidential elections while the rest of Somalia plunged into anarchy with countless fiefs run by heavily armed warlords.

Yusuf, a former Colonel in the defunct Somali army, is strongly supported by Ethiopia who sees him as an ally against the Islamist groups operating from the lawless country; but his new government's reluctance to establish itself inside the country is raising fears among many Somalis that this is going to be a government in exile.

Their Kenyan hosts are getting fed-up with accommodating hundreds of delegates who still remain in Nairobi hotels despite the completion of negotiations and the election of the government.

Chris Mullin, the British undersecretary for African affairs recently told Mr Yusuf, "You will look a lot more presidential if you went to Mogadishu and established yourself there." Many Somalis agree and hope that this new government will end their prolonged misery.