Mogadishu,Sunatimes; The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia said that its hands are open to everyone willing to sit with it on the negotiation table, Information Minister announced here Tuesday.

Talking by telephone from the Yemeni Capital Sanaa, the minister said that the Somali government was inviting all warring sides to peace talks in a bid to end the long-running civil strife in the country.

"The Somali government is fully committed to creating peace and stability in the chaotic country and by virtue of that we will negotiate with the Islamist rebels and anyone else who is against the policy of the Somali government," the minister stated.

"The government is very sorry for the difficulties on our people who are always taking the brunt of all violence here in the country, and that is why we are always calling on the militants for peace talks," the minister added.

The peace call from the Information Minister comes as the Somali Deputy Prime Minister Professor Abdirahman Ibbi announced over the weekend that reconciliation talks between the Somali government and the Hezbal Islam rebel group are under way.

However, the Al Qaeda-allied Al Shabab militants said they will never sit down with the Somali government, accusing it of being a western proxy.

The extremist groups have been fighting the legitimate Somali government for the past three years in a bid to topple it and instead implement what they call Islamic law in the country, but analysts say that the kind of Islamic rule that the militants want to form is like the Taliban Islamic system that ruled Afghanistan before their ouster in 2001 in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that rocked the United States in that year.