Somalia's President Abdulahi Yusuf has dissolved the cabinet for failing to deliver during its two-year period and announced that a 31-member one would be named within a week.

"From today onwards, the government has been dissolved, only the prime minister will remain," Yusuf reportedly told Somali parliament in central town of Baidoa, about 240 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu.

"Within a week, a new government will be in place and the cabinet will not exceed 31 ministers," he added.

The move follows an agreement brokered by Ethiopia on Sunday by Somalia's top leaders to end their differences, which threatened the two-year old fragile administration.

Both President Yusuf and Parliamentary Speaker Sherrif Hasssan Sheikh Adan had opposed the Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi's move to postpone the proposed talks in Khartoum, Sudan with rival Islamists.

But their position contradicted Gedi's rejection of talks, with political pundits saying it could further isolate Gedi who has suffered a string of political setbacks in the past week.

"We have agreed finally and we are ready to run the country with unity," he told the lawmakers.

Both Yusuf and Gedi reached an agreement to work together late Sunday, a day after two Ethiopian ministers held crisis talks seeking to salvage the transitional national government from a possible collapse owing to the duo disagreements.

Government Spokesman Abdirahman Dinari had confirmed earlier that the talks between the leaders, held in the southern town of Baidoa, were a success and that they agreed to reduce the number of ministries to 31.

An Ethiopian delegation met with the Somali leaders to help them settle their differences on whether to negotiate with the Islamic militias that control most of southern Somalia.

"Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin mediated between the leaders and according to the agreement reached on Sunday, Gedi will appoint a new Cabinet of 31 members, 31 deputy ministers and 12 State ministers within seven days," Dinari told Xinhua by telephone from Baidoa.

Since last week, 43 officials have quit the Somali government, including more than one-third of the cabinet.

Most of the departing ministers have said they oppose the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil, or that they want the government to make peace with the increasingly powerful Islamists.
 
Analysts said the recent resignations aimed to exert pressure on the premier to reshuffle his cabinet or step down.

After the government had watched helplessly as a powerful Islamic militia seized the capital, Mogadishu, and much of southern Somalia, the Islamists renewed their opposition to Arab League-mediated peace talks unless the Ethiopian troops withdrew.

The Islamists, however, have not indicated whether they are interested in power sharing, and some fear they are bent on taking all of Somalia.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2006)