KHARTOUM, Somalia (AFP) – Rival Somali leaders on Thursday reached agreement to recognise each other after Arab League sponsored talks in Khartoum aimed at ending fighting in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country, officials said.

The agreement was signed after a delegation from the Islamic alliance, which ousted US-backed warlords from the Somali capital on June 5 after four months of fighting, went into talks with members of the transitional government.

The agreement recognises “the legality of the transitional government and the presence of the alliance of Islamic tribunals,” Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa told reporters after heading talks between the two sides.

The text calls for an “end to media and military campaigns… the pursuit of dialogue without preconditions in the framework of mutual recognition” and “the judgment of war criminals,” Mussa said.

The Islamists have regarded President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as no more than just another warlord, while the president regarded the Islamists and a grouping of unlawful anarchists.

The accord was signed by a prominent scholar representing the Islamic courts, Ali Mohammed Ibrahim, and Somali foreign minister Abdullah al-Sheikh Ismail.

The meeting came after both sides held separate consultations with Arab officials – including Mussa – as well as Sudanese president Omar al-Beshir, who holds the rotating chair of the pan-Arab body.