Somalia: Gaddafi pledges to pay costs of capital's administration

Former Somali President Ali-Mahdi Mohammed said that Libyan President Moammar Gaddafi promised to pay all the necessary costs for the administration of the Somali capital, Makadishu.

Somali leaders Ali Mahdi, Hussein Aideed and Othmen Ato assembled on Thursday with Gaddafi and reviewed with him the problems which obstruct the reopening of the capital's harbor and airport and organizing the city's administration.

Aideed said that Gaddafi expressed his readiness to pay the costs of equipping 6,000 of the policemen to guarantee security in Makadishu and protect the city's vital utilities, especially the harbor and the airport after their reopening.

Concerned parties have expressed that if Gaddafi fulfilled his promise, it would help in implementing the Cairo agreement which calls for a reconciliation conference and formal agreement between the conflicting factions.