KAMPALA — (www.Bartamaha.com):- The presidents of Eritrea and Uganda, seen as the main allies of Somalia’s feuding government and Islamist rebels respectively, held rare talks Tuesday, only days after the insurgents pulled out of Mogadishu.

Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki said he had drawn lessons from talks with his counterpart Yoweri Museveni on regional security, which Asmara has been accused of undermining.

Issaias began his three-day state visit to Kampala in the wake of calls by arch-foe Ethiopia and Djibouti for tougher UN sanctions on charges that Asmara supports Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants in war-wracked Somalia.

“We have only dealt with a few issues and I hope we shall have time to exhaust all the issues,” Issaias said, according to a statement.

“I have learnt a lot from President Museveni and I will listen to him..,” he added, without providing further details of the talks.

Ugandan troops form the backbone of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) tasked with protecting the weak Somali government that the Shebab rebels have been fighting to overthrow.

Eritrea for its part has long been accused of being the Al Qaeda-affiliated Shebab group’s main state support.

The meeting between the two presidents comes less than two weeks after the Shebab insurgents, who had controlled half of Mogadishu, abandoned their positions, in a surprise move that allowed AMISOM and Somali government forces to assert their authority on the capital for the first time.

Museveni said that in addition to the security issues, the two countries were also working on bilateral deals.

“We discussed strategic and political issues in the region and our ministers are developing various bilateral agreements,” he said.

A top Ugandan foreign ministry official said Kampala was keen to hear Eritrea’s response to accusations of supporting Shebab fighters, who last year claimed responsibility of twin suicide bombings in the Ugandan capital.

The blasts killed at least 76 people in Kampala, the worst attacks in East Africa since the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

“There are serious allegations that Eritrea is supporting Al-Shebab in destabilising the Horn of Africa region, and so we will be hoping to hear responses to those issues,” James Mugume, the foreign ministry permanent secretary, told AFP.

A UN report released in late July reiterated that Eritrea was backing the Shebab militants, but Asmara has denied the allegations.

Eritrea is seeking to end regional isolation and has applied to rejoin an East African peace bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), four years after it pulled out.

But the bloc noted this month that Asmara was still facing serious accusations of supporting Somalia’s Islamist insurgents.

Eritrea withdrew from IGAD over the 2006-2007 conflict in Somalia, where its arch-foe Ethiopia deployed troops to oust an Islamist movement.

Mugume hailed Issaias’ visit as an important step by the small Red Sea state to rejoin the six-member regional body.

“We will be looking at issues on how Eritrea wants to avoid the comprehensive sanctions,” Mugume said, while voicing doubt that any firm agreement would be signed during the visit.

Eritrea has already been hit with UN Security Council sanctions. In December 2009 the world body imposed an arms embargo, travel restrictions and asset freeze on the country’s political and military leadership.

The Uganda-drafted resolution on the sanctions was backed by IGAD and the African Union over alleged military assistance to armed opposition groups in Somalia.

Issaias last month held talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during South Sudan’s independence celebration, a statement on Eritrea’s information ministry website said.

Eritrea has also rejected US concerns that the impoverished nation is struggling from the extreme drought affecting some 12 million people in all other nations across the Horn of Africa.

Instead, Asmara claims it has enjoyed a “bumper harvest” and dismissed US concerns as “propaganda worth throwing into the dustbin of lies,” in a foreign ministry statement Monday.

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