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Somalia's president has stepped down after months of political infighting within the UN-backed transitional government.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told legislators in Baidoa, where the administration is based, that he would hand in a official resignation letter later on Monday.
Yusuf has been under pressure since the parliament last week blocked his attempts to dismiss Nur Hassan Hussein, the prime minister.
"As I promised when you elected me on October 14, 2004, I would stand down if I failed to fulfill my duty, I have decided to return the responsibility you gave me," he said.
"The speaker will take over my responsibility."
The government has failed to restore security to Somalia, which has been without an effective central government since 1991.
In 2006, it had to ask for help from neighboring Ethiopia to force out the Islamic Courts Union, an alliance of armed opposition groups which had seized control of most of central and southern Somalia.
Groups that alliance have grown in strength in recent months taking back many of the areas they were pushed out of in late 2006, and the government now controls only small pockets of the country and areas of the capital Mogadishu.
Hussein has welcomed talks with the various opposition factions fighting in the civil war and backed a peace deal signed with some former members of Islamic Courts. Yusuf had been largely dismissive of the deal.
PHOTO CAPTION
Somalia's President Abdullahi Yusuf speaks to the media during a news conference in Nairobi November 21, 2008.
Al-Jazeera
