The new leaders of the northeastern semiautonomous Somali region of Puntland on Saturday said they are seeking a role in the on-going power-sharing process in Djibouti between the Somali transitional government and the opposition.

The transitional government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) are currently meeting in Djibouti to implement a power sharing agreement signed last year after UN sponsored marathon peace talks between the two sides.

In a letter sent to the UN Secretary General envoy to Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-abdallah, the newly elected President of Puntland Abdirahman Mohamed Farole said the new administration "will continue to support any legitimate, meaningful and representative reconciliation" of the Somali people in the future.

The Puntland administration said it is not "represented reasonably in the reconciliation process under the sponsorship of the United Nations and the international community".

Under Somalia's power sharing formula known as the 4.5 scheme, power and government posts are divided with four parts going to the main four clans while the left half part for the other smaller clans.

"Any appointment for the new parliament, allocated through the 4.5 scheme within the current Djibouti process and intended for the people of this part of Somalia, shall be forwarded to the administration and hence appointed by respective constituencies and its Civil Society Groups," said the regional President in the letter to Ould Abdalla.

Puntland leaders has said they will not recognize as " legitimate representatives" of their people appointed through " informal picks ups" and without the consultation of the administration and its constituencies.

The Somali government and the opposition agreed to form a government of national unity after the expansion of the current parliament membership. Nearly 275 new members will be included with 200 from the ARS which will allocate members among Somalia's different clans in accordance with the 4.5 scheme which is used to form the current parliament.

Puntland, founded in 1998, receives its share of the government as part of the Darod clan which predominantly inhabit the semiautonomous state which vehemently seeks to preserve its status as an autonomous region within wider federal Somalia.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2009)