A conference on the Somali peace process and how the international community can coordinate rebuilding efforts there will be held in Stockholm this week. The purpose of the conference on Friday is to clarify the roles of various donors and to find a consensus among the European Union, the United Nations, the Arab League and the African Union on how best to guide Somalia's transitional government, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said. Somalia has, for 13 years, been without an effective central government. But in the wake of lengthy talks in Kenya earlier this year, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was elected president of the African country by the 275-member interim parliament. He was sworn in on Oct. 14. "We welcome this development that, despite all the difficulties that remain, shows that the will exists to move the peace process forward," Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation, Carin Jaemtin, said. She said it was important that the rest of the world shows its support for Somalia's reconstruction. Those taking part in the conference include Britain, Italy, the European Commission, the United Nations, the Arab League, the African Union, the Eastern Africa regional organization Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the World Bank, the United States, France, Germany, China, Japan and Egypt.
