Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, said he had agreed proposals for a truce with the leading rebel group Hizbul Islam, a coalition of groups fighting Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers, and also accepted the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law, in the country.

The president, speaking at his palace in the capital Mogadishu, said local elders and religious leaders, acting as liaisons with the militants, brought him a message saying the rebels wanted a truce in the two-year-old fighting.

“The mediators asked me to introduce sharia [Islamic law] in the country and I agreed,” he said.

The ceasefire deal follows fierce fighting in Mogadishu this week between opposition fighters and government and African Union forces.At least 49 civilians were killed in the clashes in the capital, the independent Elman Human Rights Organisation has said.

Ahmed, who was elected on January 31 asked African peacekeepers to stand down and  said he would ask the AU contingent to leave once there is a solid political solution to the conflict.

Ethiopian troops entered the country at its request in December 2006.

Ethiopia’s action had the blessing of the United States, which accused the Islamic Courts Union of harboring fugitives from al Qaeda. But various  groups  including al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization a designation that the group denies — has already imposed its own version of sharia across parts of Somalia.