By Abdi Sheikh and Richard Lough
MOGADISHU/NAIROBI

(Reuters) – Western powers are in early talks on writing off Somalia’s debt, a big shift for a country that was long branded a failed state and has with help scored successes against al Qaeda-linked rebels and piracy.

Just two years ago, Islamist militants and African peacekeepers fought daily street battles in Mogadishu.

Now the city is rid of insurgents, though still vulnerable to attack, and the government’s focus is on bolstering security, rooting out corruption and imposing the rule of law.

Foreign diplomats point to a determination to re-enter the international fold under President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected last year in the country’s first vote for decades.

This is welcome progress for regional states whose economies have been rattled by their neighbor’s instability and for Western capitals which long worried Somalia provides a base for militant Islam to flourish unchecked.

Source:Reuters