BELETWEIN, Somalia Nov 5 (Garowe Online) - Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the opposition leader in Somalia, has announced that he is stepping down as executive head of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

In a BBC Somali Service interview, Sheikh Sharif said the ICU is planning to hold a general congress and elect new leadership.

Nov. 4: Sheikh Sharif lands in Beletwein/GO

"I am not ready to become a candidate because I have been holding [the post] for a long time and I must now give an opportunity to new people," Sheikh Sharif said.

He offered an ambiguous answer when asked whether or not he will join the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), a charge often voiced by ICU hardliners who have rejected the Djibouti Agreement.

This week, Sheikh Sharif led a delegation to Somalia that includes other officers of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), an opposition coalition formed in Eritrea in 2007 but split into rival factions after the Djibouti Agreement was signed to end the two-year insurgency.

The ARS delegation has been warmly received in Jowhar and Beletwein, two provincial capitals controlled by ICU forces.

Ahmed Abdullahi, spokesman for Sheikh Sharif's delegation, told reporters Wednesday that the ARS delegation has met with ICU officials and traditional elders in Beletwein.

"Sheikh Sharif presented our [ARS] political agenda and urged all groups to support the peace process," the spokesman said.

He welcomed a recent fatwa issued by a group of Islamic scholars that called for the ICU to hold a general conference this month inside Somalia intended to settle internal political differences. READ: Big welcome for Islamist chief in central Somalia

In June 2006, the ICU and Sheikh Sharif rose to fame after expelling Mogadishu's notoriously destructive warlords from the Somali capital of 16 years of senseless violence.

The ICU splintered into smaller factions following the Ethiopian invasion later that year, leading a bloody anti-Ethiopia insurgency that has ravaged the country since.

Source: Garowe Online