A much-delayed Somali reconciliation conference is due to kick off today in Mogadishu amid fears of insurgent attacks and in the absence of the government's main opposition. Some one thousand and three hundred delegates are expected at the meeting, billed as the latest bid to restore stability. The reconciliation conference was called by the Transitional Federal Government after it defeated an Islamist movement with the help of Ethiopia in January, but their main adversaries have rejected the meeting.