NAIROBI, July 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states has been urged to impose sanctions against a Somali faction leader for refusing to rejoin the ongoing national reconciliation conference in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

    "The Facilitation Committee condemn in the strongest terms the absence and activities of Morgan and call upon the whole region to apply smart sanctions which would deny him entry into any of the IGAD countries," Bethwel Kiplagat, chairman of the IGAD Facilitation Committee said in a statement issued here Wednesday.

    Mohamed Siad Hersi 'Morgan' is the only faction leader, who signed the Somali ceasefire accord in Kenyan western town Eldoret in 2002, to be absent from the final phase of the Somali peace talks in Nairobi.

    A former strongman in southern Somalia's Juba Valley region, Morgan was deposed by the rival Juba Valley Alliance militia in 1999, but is currently believed to be organizing a counter-attack to regain the region.

    The mediators have urged the delegates to honor a July 31 deadline set by IGAD for the end of Phase III, the last stage of the peace talks.

    The foreign ministers of member states of the regional mediating body, IGAD, who met in Nairobi mid this month, said Somalia's proposed transitional federal parliament will be inaugurated on 30 July in the Kenyan capital.

    They called for transparency in the process of distributing seats and selecting members of the proposed Somali Transitional Federal Assembly.

    Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991 when the regime of Muhammad Siad Barre was toppled and the country plunged into anarchy and violence.

    IGAD groups Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Somalia is also a member, but is not fully represented dueto lack of a functioning government.

    The IGAD-sponsored Somali National Reconciliation Conference began in October 2002 in Eldoret, and was moved to Nairobi in February 2003. Enditem¡¡