"The goal of this group is to promote concerted action and coordination to support the Somalia transitional federal institutions," McCormack said.

WASHINGTON – The United States has called for an international "contact group" to discuss strategy on Somalia, implicitly acknowledging the failure of its policies in the Horn of Africa country.

"The goal of this group is to promote concerted action and coordination to support the Somalia transitional federal institutions," said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the US State Department, Reuters reported on Friday, June 9.

"So we are going to be working with other interested states and international organizations on this matter," he added.

McCormak said the first meeting of the Somalia contact group will meet next week in New York.

He, however, did not say which countries had been approached to take part in the contact group, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

But a senior US State Department official said on condition of anonymity that the countries likely were Britain, Italy and Norway, and unspecified African countries.

"I would expect the UN would want to participate in this," McCormack said.

Somalia's Islamic courts on Monday, June 5, declared victory over the US-backed warlord Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) after four months of fierce fighting in the capital Mogadishu.

Up to 347 people have been killed and more than 1,500 wounded in fierce fighting between the two sides since February.

US government officials and expert have said that the secret US funding of the Somali warlords against the Islamic Courts has backfired, empowering the same groups Washington has sought to marginalize.

Warlords have controlled Mogadishu since the 1991 overthrow of president Mohamed Siad Barre.

The African country has lacked almost all the trappings of a functional state, such as national systems of education, healthcare and justice.

Welcome

The US contact group proposal has drawn an immediate welcome from the interim Somali government, Reuters said.

Somalia's deputy UN ambassador, Idd Beddel, said the meeting was "a long overdue engagement on Somalia".

He expressed hope the meeting would pave the way for a "peace support mission" staffed by the African Union and neighboring states.

The US spokesman said Somali groups were unlikely to attend the New York talks, but the invitation list was not finished.

Washington has shied away from direct involvement in the African country since the humiliating 1994 exit of US and UN troops there.

The Bush administration has indicated it might be open to dealing with the Islamic courts in Somalia by saying it would "reserve judgment" on the Islamic courts.

Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, wrote to the United States and others last week to allay concern Somalia would become a safe haven for terrorists as presumed by Washington.

Islamic courts fighters, holding most of the lawless Somali capital, demanded on Saturday, June 10, the speedy surrender of holdout members of the alliance.

But the warlords immediately rejected the call and reinforced positions in Mogadishu's bullet-scarred north while bolstering defenses at their last remaining stronghold in the town of Jowhar, anticipating an attack.