MOGADISHU, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Two civilians were killed as violence continued in the Somali capital, where the government is facing a bloody insurgency, witnesses said Wednesday.

Gunmen killed the two people in southern Mogadishu's Medina district overnight, said Naima Mohamed, a resident.

"We heard gunshots and when we went outside, the two were already dead," she said.

Government troops battled insurgents overnight in northern Suqaholaha district for a second day, but the casualties remained unclear, local residents said.

Seven people were killed in Tuesday's fighting in Mogadishu, where the insurgency has been mounted anew against the presence of Ethiopian forces who backed the Somali government to oust an Islamist movement.

Mogadishu, the epicentre of violence in Somalia, is hosting talks seeking to reconcile feuding factions and tighten President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed's tenuous grip on power in the impoverished nation of 10 million.

But the Islamists who were evicted from Mogadishu in April after months of clashes, are boycotting the parley and have been blamed for numerous attacks the capital.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore peace.

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