EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Friday urged Somali leaders to press ahead with a "roadmap" to set up a government to replace the transitional body that has failed to bring peace to the country.
Somalia's disparate leaders signed the agreement Tuesday in Mogadishu after three days of talks at a heavily-guarded conference venue.
"I would like to express my great satisfaction" at the deal, Ashton said.
"I now urge the Transitional Federal Institutions and all its Somali partners to work effectively to ensure the implementation of this roadmap in compliance with the agreed benchmarks and timelines."
The European Union would help with the enactment of the plan and continue to play an active role in Somalia "to alleviate the consequences of the worsening humanitarian situation, restore security and contribute to peace, development and internal reconciliation," she added.
Hundreds of people are believed to be dying each day from famine exacerbated by conflict, with three quarters of a million Somalis facing death by starvation, many of them children, the UN said this week.
Somalia's prime minister, as well as representatives of the breakaway Puntland region, the central Galmudug region and the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, signed the deal under UN auspices.
The agreement is the latest of over a dozen attempts to resolve Somalia's more than two-decade civil war, with the country split between rival factions and host to pirate gangs who hijack ships far across the Indian Ocean.
Constant political wrangles and a bloody Islamist insurgency have undermined Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), which has been unable to carry out its key mandate of reconciling the country, writing a new constitution and organizing elections.
Source: AFP
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