The fighting erupted between the Sa'ad and Dir sub-clans over disputed land in Galkaio town in central Somalia, said Bile Mohamud Qabowsade, a government official from Puntland, Somalia's northern breakaway region.

"We received five bodies and 10 wounded (people)," said Feisal Ise Qondhe, a medical official in a hospital north of Galkaio, adding that four other bodies and eight wounded people were taken to a nearby hospital.

Qabowsade said government forces had been sent to the area and the feuding clans had been urged to reach a ceasefire.

Meanwhile in the Somali capital Mogadishu, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein reiterated his call to government opponents, notably the Islamist militia, for dialogue to end years of turmoil in the Horn of Africa country.

"No group will be denied the right to negociate peace," Hussein told a press conference. "We will talk to everybody regardless of their political affiliations."

"The shababs (Islamist militia) are part of the Somali people and the government will talk to them in order to end the cycle of violence," he added.