The new interim President of Somalia, Abdulkassim Salad Hassan, has left the capital,
Mogadishu, for the first time since he returned to the country earlier this week.
He has gone to the inland town of Baidoa to try to win popular support. Mr Hassan
was elected last weekend by the transitional parliament meeting in neighbouring
Djibouti, in a process rejected by several key militias who control large areas
of the country. Mr
Hassan has said he will choose a cabinet shortly -- Somalia's first for nearly
a decade. Militia
leaders who have rejected Mr Hassan's election are in Yemen, where President Ali
Salih is trying to persuade them to back the new leadership. Meanwhile,
Kenya's Foreign Minister, Bonaya Godana, has called on all Somali faction leaders
to co-operate with the new leadership.
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