Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The International Contact Group is the principal international vehicle for engagement on Somalia.
The group was founded two or three years ago and is co-chaired by the United States and Norway. It comprises both active members and observers, some from Africa, others from the west, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada. No distinction is drawn, however, between active members and observers.
Thus far, the group has operated as a forum for dialogue with the government and other partners in order to discuss intervention strategies for those African countries facing the greatest difficulties. We hope that the group will go on to strike a number of task forces to provide more direct support to the government, for example, by helping to prepare the census with a view to the 2009 election and by helping draft the constitution and train police officers.
The ICG is a means of cooperating with the Somali government, even though normal access channels are closed to the majority of the group's members, a reality with which we are not confronted elsewhere.