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Somalia's new president has vowed to hold talks with the al-Shabaab movement, one of several armed opposition groups fighting for control of the country.
"I believe the best way to approach them is dialogue and trying to convince each other," Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed told Al Jazeera.
Ahmed, who led the Islamic Courts Union when it controlled much of south and central Somalia in 2006 before being forced out by Ethiopian troops, was sworn in as president on February 1.
He has vowed to form a broad-based government and invite all armed groups in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa nation to join a UN-sponsored reconciliation effort.
"You know in Somalia today everyone thinks he or she is right and doesn't want to dialogue. We must abandon this culture. We must sit together, talk and come up with solutions to our problems," Ahmed said.
"That is the best way forward. We must stay away from anything that will bring further conflict."
Armed opposition
Ahmed's Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) joined the transitional government as part of a peace deal signed in 2008.
But the administration has little real power, with armed opposition groups, including al-Shabaab, controlling many towns and large areas of the capital Mogadishu.
As the parliament met in neighboring Djibouti to elect Ahmed, al-Shabaab, which split from the Islamic Courts over the peace process and disapproves of Ahmed, moved into the of Baidoa were the government normally meets.
Ahmed insisted that his experience as leader of the Islamic Courts during their brief period of power had prepared him for the task of stabilizing the country, which has been without an effective central government since 1991.
"When I begun that task many used to tell me that I would fail and that I should abandon my lofty ideas for peace. These calls came to me from friends, relatives and all those who knew me," he said.
"But I was adamant that I could not just sit and watch as Somalia's situation continued to worsen. Thanks God I managed to convince many to accept peace and we realized stability for sometime under the Islamic Courts Union.
"I believe there is even a bigger opportunity for peace today."
There have been more than a dozen previous peace efforts since Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991 and three previous governments have been formed, but they never managed to take effective control of the country.
African peacekeepers
The African Union has sent peacekeepers to Somalia in an attempt to halt the violence which has killed at least 16,000 people in the last two years and caused more than one million to flee their homes.
But the troops, sent by Uganda and Burundi, have been unable to bring the situation under control and have instead become targets of some of the near-daily attacks.
Ahmed told Al Jazeera that during a recent African Union summit he had asked the body to review how the mission in Somalia operates after reports that civilians had been killed in the crossfire between the two sides.
"We met the African Union Commission and discussed the problems the AU forces in Somalia pose to civilians when they come under attack. We said we are not happy with how they react with force," he said.
"Somalia is passing through bad times and our intention is to give the role of peace building to the people and the government to take the leadership and facilitation of these efforts.
"We want to secure the country in a very short time. This will enable the peacekeepers to return home."
PHOTO CAPTION
Sheikh Sharif (C), leader of the opposition Alliance for Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and new President of Somalia, speaks to the media during a news conference at the 12th African Union Summit in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa February 4, 2009.
Al-Jazeera
