NAIROBI, Kenya — Somalia's weak, U.N.-backed transitional government will meet with its Islamic rivals in Sudan later this week for talks aimed at easing tensions after the Islamists took over of much of southern Somalia, an Arab League official said Wednesday.

The talks, to be held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, will have a ceremonial opening Friday, but the actual discussions will begin Saturday, said Abdallah Mubarak, the Arab League's special envoy to Somalia.

A diplomat closely involved in the Arab League-sponsored meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing relations with both sides, said the talks will include issues such as power sharing between the transitional government and the Islamic courts group.

The talks began in June, when the two sides signed an agreement that called for an immediate truce and in which the Islamic courts officially recognized President Abdullahi Yusuf's transitional administration.

After that agreement, the talks failed to resume as scheduled in July, following divisions within the transitional government over how to handle the ascendancy of the Islamic courts in Somalia.

Islamic leaders also refused to attend following reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia in July. Earlier this month, the Islamic group decided to discuss the issue of Ethiopian troops during the talks instead of refusing to attend.

Witnesses have reported seeing Ethiopian troops in Somalia to support the acting government, but Ethiopia has denied having troops in Somalia.

Somali parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden is leading a 16-person government delegation that is on its way to Khartoum, State Minister for Fisheries Abdalla Bos told The Associated Press as he boarded a plane to Sudan.

Ibrahim Hassan Adow, the foreign affairs chief for the Islamists, is already in Khartoum, according to the Islamists' Web site, Al-Khadisiya.

The Islamists' information chief, Abdirahim Ali Mudey, told The Associated Press that its executive council is meeting in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to determine members of the delegation to the talks.

Mubarak said that the Arab League will send a plane Thursday to Mogadishu to pick up the rest of the Islamic courts group delegation.

The diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing relations with both sides told The Associated Press the talks may be moved to Saudi Arabia, Yemen or the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The country descended into chaos, with rival warlords and clans ruling their areas by violence and with impunity.

A transitional government was formed two years ago with the help of the United Nations to lead Somalia out of the anarchy, but it failed to assert any power outside its base in Baidoa, 150 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.

In June, Islamic militiamen took over Mogadishu and then seized control of much of southern Somalia.

The United States accuses the Islamists of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

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Associated Press writers Mohamed Olad Hassan in Baidoa, Somalia and Salad Duhul in Mogadishu, Somalia contributed to this report.