MOGADISHU, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Three people, including a policemen, were killed in new violence in the Somali capital, where the government is facing a bloody insurgency, police and witnesses said Wednesday.

Gunmen killed two civilians overnight in the Medina district of southern Mogadishu, the latest in a string of attacks that have convulsed the seaside capital, said Naima Mohamed, a resident.

A policeman was killed near Hotel Lafweyn, where delegates attending government-sponsored peace talks are living, said police spokesman Abdulwahid Mohamed.

Government troops battled insurgents overnight in northern Suqaholaha district for a second day, wounding two civilians, Hussein Abdi Ali, a resident said.

Seven people were killed in Tuesday's fighting in Mogadishu, where insurgents have mounted a new offensive against the presence of Ethiopian forces who backed the Somali government to oust an Islamist movement.

Mogadishu is also 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 talks and have been blamed for numerous attacks the capital.

Instead, they plan to launch separate talks in the Eritrean capital Asmara on September 1.

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.

Joint Somali-Ethiopian troops and at least 1,500 African Union peacekeepers have failed to stem the insurgency that has choked the delivery of supplies to Mogadishu residents.

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