ROME, Italy Sep 5 (Garowe Online) - A former prime minister in Somalia's beleaguered transitional federal government has formally taken his new post as the country's ambassador to Italy, Radio Garowe reports.

Mr. Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, who was Somali Prime Minister between Nov. 2007 and Jan. 2009, formally accepted his ambassadorial post following a meeting this week with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, sources said.

An event was held Thursday evening at the Somali Embassy in Rome to mark Nur Adde's ascension as the Somali ambassador to Italy. The sources said that the Somali community Rome welcomed the new ambassador by hosting an iftar – Muslims’ traditional fast-breaking during the holy month of Ramadan.

Further, Nur Adde holds the post of Somali envoy to the European Union. He was appointed by interim Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed in June, as Garowe Online reported. READ: Ex-Somalia PM to become EU Envoy, Ambassador to Italy

Italy became the first country in the West to pronounce plans to reopen its embassy in Mogadishu, the war-battered capital of Somalia. Somalia's last effective national government collapsed in 1991 and the Horn of Africa country has been reeling from political anarchy, drought and perpetual violence since.

The Somali interim government, backed by African Union peacekeepers, currently controls a few neighborhoods while most of Mogadishu remains in the hands of insurgents.

Source: Garowe Online