Peace Conference Delayed Until March

A conference aimed at restoring a central government in Somalia has been postponed until March 31, the leaders of two major factions said. Ali Mahdi Mohamed, warlord for north Mogadishu, and Hussein Mohammed Aidid, in control of most of the southern part of the capital, said lack of financing and transportation forced them to delay the meeting. With the backing of Egypt and the Arab League, 26 Somali faction leaders agreed in Cairo in December to hold the conference, which was to have begun today in Baidoa, about 150 miles northwest of Mogadishu. Somalia has had no central government since January 1991, when Ali Mahdi and the late Gen. Mohammed Farah Aidid, Hussein’s father, ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, then turned their guns on each other.