A Djibouti delegation, led by deputy parliament speaker Idris Farah Harbi, arrived in Somalia's northeastern regional state of "Puntland" on Tuesday to discuss Thursday's planned Somali peace conference initiated by President Ismail Omar Guelleh, elders said.

The delegation was invited by traditional elders from the area, but the government of Puntland, led by Colonel Abdullahi Yousuf Ahmed, has ordered his security forces to stop movement of people to and from Djibouti.

Harbi's delegation was barred from entering neighbouring Somaliland in northwest Somalia on Friday, prompting Djibouti to also expel Somaliland's representative from Djibouti.

Somaliland, which broke away from the rest of Somalia in May 1991, five months after dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled, maintains that it is now a separate entity, although it has yet to be recognised by the international community

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