By Mark John

BRUSSELS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister said on Tuesday his government was ready to start talks with opponents aimed at ending 17 years of violence.

But Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said the withdrawal of Ethiopian peacekeepers could not be a precondition for talks, rejecting a proposal from Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, exiled leader of Somalia's opposition Islamists.

"From now on we are planning to elaborate a strategy of conciliation that will be all-inclusive," Hussein told Reuters in an interview during a trip to Brussels.

"Everyone now is asking when, when the real discussion, when the real agreement will take place. ... so it will not be very far away now," added Hussein, who was sworn in last November.

Islamist leader Ahmed said on Friday talks were possible if war crimes are punished and Ethiopian troops withdrawn.

Hussein said the issue of Ethiopian talks could be tackled in the talks. "The first condition should be that we have to talk and agree about something ... we are ready to start discussion with opposition groups and one of the points to be discussed would be the Ethiopian troops," he said.

Ahmed's Islamist courts' movement ruled the capital Mogadishu for six months before it was ousted in 2006 by Ethiopian forces backing the interim Somali government.

Hardline Islamists have since led an insurgency that has claimed at least 6,500 lives and prompted 600,000 to flee the capital in the latest convulsion of violence to hit Somalia.

The U.N. refugee agency's representative there said last month that high levels of malnutrition and the difficulties of delivering aid made Somalia the world's most pressing humanitarian crisis, above Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

Somalia has been mired in violence since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. (Editing by Keith Weir)

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