Italy called on the international community on Friday to back Somalia's attempt to form a unity government in order to curb rising piracy and instability in the Horn of Africa.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, hosting a meeting in Rome of the International Contact Group on Somalia, said piracy had reached an "intolerable magnitude" in the Gulf of Aden, where Italian warships participate in a EU naval taskforce.
Italy and her partners stood ready to step up their efforts to counter piracy, Frattini said, but the root cause of the problem lay in Somalia's political turmoil following 18 years of civil conflict and must be solved by Somalia's government.
"We therefore support the efforts of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Prime Minister Sharmarke to build a government of national unity, inclusive and open to all components of Somali society which reject violence and terrorism," Frattini said.
The government of President Ahmed, who previously led the Islamic Courts Union that controlled Mogadishu before an Ethiopian invasion in 2006, is battling Islamist insurgents.
Aid agencies say more than 1 million people have been made homeless and 3 million need urgent food aid in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Frattini told an opening session of the meeting -- which draws representatives from more than 35 countries and international organizations -- that instability in Somalia encouraged not only piracy but illegal migration and terrorism and constituted a threat to international security.
"It is time to redouble our efforts," said Frattini. "We are convinced that now, more than in the past, the conditions are in place for decisive support from the international community."
Justice Ministers from the G8 group of industrialised nations meeting in Rome last month agreed to press ahead on a legal framework for the trial of Somali pirates, seen as a major obstacle to international efforts to stop piracy.
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, said in a statement the meeting came at a vital time for Somalia.
"It is vital that the international community gives a strong message of support to the legal government," said Ould-Abdallah, who chairs the International Contact Group, founded in 2005. (Reporting by Antonio Denti and Daniel Flynn; Additional reporting by David Clarke in Nairobi).
Source: Reuters
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