Somali gov't representatives and a number of opposition figures have formally signed a UN-sponsored peace deal in Djibouti.

The pact between the Eritrea-based opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and the government called for continued dialogue between the parties and advised against any 'inflammatory statements'.

It also condemned 'the perpetrators as well as those who mastermind and fund violence which targets innocent people, including killings, indiscriminate shelling, looting, raping and acts of piracy'.

The agreement, however, has failed to generate much enthusiasm, with people being skeptical that it would stop Ethiopians from killing Somalis, Press TV correspondent reported.

A senior leader of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, also rejected the peace deal.

The ARS and the Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein had inked an initial accord in early June in Djibouti, calling for the termination of all acts of armed confrontation for a period of 90 days.

The agreement also called on the United Nations to facilitate the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces by deploying its peacekeepers to Somalia.

The US-backed Ethiopian troops have long been criticized for indiscriminate killings and some of the worst human rights violations in Somalia.

Amnesty International said in May that it obtained scores of reports of killings by Ethiopian troops that Somalis have described as "slaughtering like goats".

According to the rights group, some 6,000 civilians were reported killed and more than 600,000 were forced to flee their homes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, last year.

Somali Islamic insurgents fighting a United Nations-backed transitional government have pledged to unite rival factions to drive Ethiopian troops from the east African nation, a spokesman for the rebel group said.

The Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia split in June when a moderate faction led by Sheikh Sharif Ahmed signed a deal with the interim government in Djibouti, agreeing that attacks would stop in 30 days and UN peacekeepers would replace Ethiopian troops within four months. The accord was rejected by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Islamist leader regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist linked to al-Qaeda.

Differences between the leaders of the Islamic Courts Union ``will end soon,'' Abdilkadir Ali Omar, the deputy chairman of the group, said yesterday in a teleconference with journalists in the capital, Mogadishu. ``We will continue fighting against the Ethiopian forces who invaded our homeland aggressively until they withdraw from our country.''

Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to help the transitional government oust Islamic militias from southern and central parts of the country. Violence between rebels and government troops has intensified since then.

Somalia hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 removal of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

The transitional government and ARS representatives agreed at a meeting yesterday in neighboring Djibouti to halt all fighting and pledged to implement the June peace agreement, the government said in a communiqué.

`Inflammatory Statements'

``The parties agreed to continue the political dialogue between themselves and refrain from making inflammatory statements,'' it said. ``They reaffirmed their commitment to cease all armed confrontation and to establish sub committees to implement the arrangements to that end.''

Meanwhile, Ethiopia denied its soldiers were responsible for attacks on minibuses last week that killed at least 40 civilians. The authorities in Addis Ababa blamed the Islamic al- Shabaab militia for planting a remote-controlled bomb under one of the vehicles, killing 11 passengers.

A local doctor and eyewitnesses said on Aug. 16 the minibus passengers died after Ethiopian soldiers opened fire on the vehicles. The attack occurred in Arbiska, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu.

``It was the Al-Shabaab bombing of the bus that caused the deaths of passengers, not fire from Ethiopian soldiers,'' the government said in a statement posted on its Web site today.

Five civilians died in a shootout between the Islamic militants and Ethiopian and Somali government soldiers, it said.