(This story includes material from a pool reporter accompanying Fall) (Adds quotes, details) BAIDOA, Somalia, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A top U.N. envoy met Somali government leaders on Monday to try to revive foundering peace talks with rival Islamists, the latest bid to stop growing hostilities in the Horn of Africa nation. Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. Secretary-General's special representative to Somalia, flew into the government's sole outpost Baidoa to meet President Abdullahi Yusuf, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and top officials of the fractured government. Security was tight on the short drive from the airport to the presidential compound, a day after an Islamist source said fighters loyal to the religious movement had attacked an Ethiopian military convoy heading to Baidoa. "We strongly urge the transitional federal institutions to remain committed to dialogue. The international community is very, very concerned," Fall said, noting the government's rejection of a deal brokered by their parliamentary speaker. "The secretary-general wants to encourage you to keep the doors of dialogue open," he said, adding he expected talks to resume in Sudan's capital Khartoum in mid-December. After several hours of talks with Fall, the government said it had invited parliamentary speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan back to Baidoa, despite rejecting a deal he brokered to restart talks with the Islamists that failed three weeks ago. Adan had travelled to Mogadishu this month to meet the Islamists, who have challenged the Western-backed interim administration's authority by seizing most of southern Somalia. "They came to us worrying about the unity of the transitional federal institutions," Gedi said. "When they have read our unified position, their concerns have been addressed." Fall welcomed the decision on Adan, but it was not clear if the government was warming to the speaker's talks plan. "VERY DIFFICULT MOMENT" Adan has always had good relations with the Islamists and some of their businessmen backers, often putting him at odds with Yusuf and Gedi, both closely allied to neighbour Ethiopia. Gedi said Adan's peace plan was not discussed with Fall. The U.N. envoy's trip comes in the wake of a U.N. report which says several nations were fuelling Somalia's march to war. The report says at least seven African and Middle Eastern nations are providing arms and military supplies to the Islamists and three are arming the government. The Islamists seized the capital Mogadishu in June and now control much of the south, leaving the government in Baidoa where residents say Ethiopian troops are protecting it. The Islamists are just 30 km (18 miles) from Baidoa. An Islamist source said on Sunday fighters loyal to the religious movement, which wants to rule Somalia by sharia law, attacked an Ethiopian military convoy in southern Somalia. A security source said six Ethiopians were killed in the incident. If confirmed, it would be the first attack by the Islamists on Ethiopian troops, against whom they have declared holy war. But Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday a truck carrying food for Ethiopian trainers hit a landmine on Sunday, but denied any soldiers were involved, or that there was a shootout. Addis Ababa denies sending troops to Somalia.
