NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 11 (Garowe Online) - Somalia's former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Sunday that he is "ready to mediate" between the country's Ethiopian-backed transitional government and a Somali opposition alliance based in Eritrea.

"I am not a member of the opposition but I am always eager to seek peace in Somalia," Gedi said during an interview with Al Jazeera TV.

Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, former Prime Minister of Somalia

He said he is even willing to visit exiled Somali opposition leaders in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea.

Gedi called on Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf to stop making major decisions alone and urged him to seek genuine reconciliation and fairness.

The former Somali premier appealed to the armed groups opposed to Yusuf's government to accept peace and seek compromise.

Gedi resigned from the post of Somali prime minister last month after seriously falling out with President Yusuf. He is still a member of the Somali parliament.

The Eritrea-based Somali opposition group, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, includes Islamic Courts clerics, former lawmakers and Diaspora activists.

The opposition has supported the ongoing insurgency in Mogadishu, which has killed hundreds of people and forced the exodus of hundreds of thousands more.

It is not clear what the opposition thinks of Gedi's offer, fully aware that he has led the transitional government since its formation in 2004.

Ethiopia and Eritrea are bitter foes engaged in a border dispute that led to a war in 1998. That two-year border war killed more than 70,000 people and the border dispute remains unresolved to date, with both governments maintaining thousands of troops along their 1,000km frontier.

Source: Garowe Online