(Adds Rice comments, updates president's condition) By Guled Mohamed NAIROBI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf spent a second day in hospital on Wednesday with what government sources called a minor chest problem but a diplomatic source described as a very serious condition. In a tumultuous week for Somali politics, an exiled Islamist leader rejected a call by Somalia's new prime minister for talks to try to stem a year-long insurgency that has killed some 6,000 civilians. And Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein struggled to replace five ministers after his earlier picks resigned on Sunday, saying their clan was under-represented in the government. Hussein was urged by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who he met with in Ethiopia on Wednesday, to be "inclusive" in forming his new government. "I think everyone understands the difficulty of the job ahead of you but also that you are a respected leader, and the importance of broadening the political basis for reconciliation in Somalia," Rice said. Somalia's 14th attempt at government since 1991 has been beset by a raging insurgency, political infighting that has crippled the transitional government, a humanitarian crisis the United Nations says is the worst in Africa, and uncertainty. At Nairobi Hospital, Somali Ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Ali Nur said President Yusuf -- who gives his age as 72 but is said by some to be nearer 80 -- was having a routine check-up before seeing doctors in London where he had a liver transplant. Three sources close to the president said Yusuf had a chest complaint that was being treated prior to the stress of intercontinental travel, which was likely to happen on Thursday. Having lived with a transplanted liver for nearly 13 years, Yusuf routinely flies abroad for check-ups and what might be a normal malady in others his age must be closely watched. "We don't like the allegations ( his condition is worse)," the Somali ambassador said. "I can tell you that he is OK, he was actually exercising." U.S URGES MORE PEACEKEEPERS But a diplomat tracking Somalia said officials were hiding the truth after Yusuf was flown into Nairobi on Tuesday. "He is very, very bad. His stomach is inflated 10 centimetres and he is permanently on an oxygen mask," he said, citing conversations with Somali officials on Wednesday. If anything were to happen to Yusuf, Somali parliamentary speaker Sheikh Adan Madobe would take over for 30 days while a successor was found, according to the government's charter. In Eritrea, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of the opposition Alliance For the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and considered a relative moderate among the Islamist movement, scoffed at the new prime minister's call for dialogue. "Our problem is not with the old prime minister or the new prime minister. Our problem is Ethiopia's occupation," he said. Ahmed's Islamist courts' movement ruled Mogadishu for six months last year, until it was routed by Ethiopia's army backing forces from the interim Somali government. Hardline Islamists have led an insurgency against the government and Ethiopian troops throughout 2007. Rice said she would push for more peacekeepers to help Uganda, the only country that has contributed to an African Union mission there. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said a U.N. peacekeeping mission is not feasible. "We appreciate very much Ugandan forces that are there, but they need to be joined soon by other forces. I look forward to the deployment of these forces," Rice told reporters. "We do believe the Ethiopian forces should not have to stay in Somalia past a certain point," she said, adding she had spoken to the U.N. chief about the need for a robust force. (Additional reporting by Aweys Yusuf in Mogadishu, Guled Mohamed, Bryson Hull and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi, Sue Pleming in Addis Ababa, Jack Kimball in Asmara, Mohammed Abbas and Louis Charbonneau in Berlin; Editing by Bryson Hull and Mary Gabriel)
