Profile: Ali Mohamed Ghedi  November 06-2004    

Somalia's new prime minister, 52-year-old Ali Mohamed Ghedi, is no career politician, but as an intellectual it is hoped he will command the respect of the country's many warlords.

He faces a tough road ahead, tasked with setting up a cabinet within the next month, and installing the government in Mogadishu - Somalia's capital - a city controlled by opposing and heavily armed groups.

A qualified vet, Mr Ghedi is relatively unknown in political circles, and was only sworn in as a member of Somalia's parliament-in-exile hours before his appointment, after a Mogadishu warlord gave up his seat for him.

It is his affiliation to the Hawiye clan of Mogadishu, one of Somalia's two biggest clans, which is seen as his greatest strength.

Newly elected President Abdullahi Yusuf is from the other big clan, the Darod, and is unpopular in Mogadishu.

His choice of prime minister is part of a fine balancing act to try to bring reconciliation to the country divided into clan fiefdoms after 13 years of civil war.

Committed campaigner

After finishing school in his home-city of Mogadishu, Mr Ghedi went on to study veterinary medicine at universities in Somalia and Italy.

Until the outbreak of the civil war, he was a lecturer and researcher at the Somali National University.

But with university's closure, he turned his attention to reviving the livestock trade crippled by the conflict, as a special advisor and marketing consultant to various regional livestock bodies.

From Nairobi he also oversaw an internationally funded animal disease control programme for Somalia.

Since the outbreak of conflict, Mr Ghedi has been a committed campaigner in the reconciliation process.

As the founding member and president of the Somalia NGO Consortium, an umbrella group of non-governmental organisations in Somalia, he attended many reconciliation meetings in Somalia and abroad.

He is not a military man, nor was he linked to any armed group during the war - although, in the 1970s, he did complete his military service training.

Married with children, he has a rather serious demeanour, and is not regarded as a great orator, expressing himself in short, sharp sentences.

Looking younger than his years, Mr Ghedi seems relaxed about the massive task confronting him, and confident about his abilities to heal Somalia's fragmented political scene.