MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia broke diplomatic relations with Libya Tuesday because of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Khadafy's open support for Ethiopia and an underground Somali opposition movement, the official Sonna news agency reported.
'It has become a necessity to cut diplomatic relations with Libya while Khadafy's government directly or indirectly endangers the unity and independence of the Somali Democratic Republic,' Sonna quoted a foreign ministry statement.
Ministry officials said Libya had been given 24 hours to close its people's bureau, or embassy, in Mogadishu.
Libya has been supporting the Somali Salvation Front, a guerrilla organization based in neighboring Ethiopia which seeks to overthrow Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre's 12-year-old government.
In a speech in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa Saturday, Khadafy said:
'We announce our unlimited support for the Somali National Salvation Front, because Somalia has transformed itself into a base for colonialism and imperialism and was mobilized to fight (against) the revolution in this region.'
Sonna said the decision to break relations was made Monday night by Somalia's supreme revolutionary council, the African nation's ruling body.
It was due to Khadafy's 'conspiracies against the Somali people and the Libyan leader's support for Ethiopia against the Moslem peoples in western Somalia (the Ogaden desert region), in (the Somali-Ethiopian border region of) Somalia-Abba and Eritrea,' the agency said.
Sonna said the resolution called on the Libyan people to oust Khadafy.
Somalia and Ethiopia have been on a virtual war footing ever since Ethiopia won a 1977-78 war over the disputed Ogaden region. A former Soviet ally, Somalia expelled a 4,000-strong Soviet community in 1977 and last year agreed to give the United States extensive base facilities at the Gulf of Aden port of Berbera in return for $45 million in military and economic aid.
