By William Maclean and Nicholas Kotch
NAIROBI, June 3 (Reuters) - If optimism is the mark of a diplomat, Bethuel Kiplagat is a true professional.
The veteran Kenyan negotiator, mediating Somalia's 14th bid to make peace in a decade, said on Tuesday he expected warring factions to wrap up seven months of talks by forming an interim government in two weeks' time.
"Our target is the 18th (of June) to have a president," Kiplagat told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the peace conference of 361 delegates near Kenya's capital Nairobi.
A retired foreign ministry official involved in African conflicts for decades, Kiplagat does not subscribe to the common view that Somali clan leaders are uniquely argumentative.
"One of the things I have been fighting against is that people tell me that Somalis are the most difficult people. I tell them this is not true. They are like any of us -- hot-headed, difficult, but you talk with them and look, they are still here and the (peace) process is still going on."
Kiplagat, a suave, silver-haired figure whose sharp business suits mark him out from the more casually dressed militia chiefs he mingles with, suggested he enjoys chairing the talks.
"There is humour, there is laughter, there is anger," he said. "You'll be bored because sometimes they repeat themselves. But have you been to the U.N.? It is boring like hell! There are no fireworks whereas here at least we have some anger and some humour."
Somalia has been wracked by civil war since the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. A transitional government controls only a part of Mogadishu while everywhere else numerous warlords hold sway.
Peace talks began in Kenya last October, bringing in more factions than ever before. Many previous attempts to end the conflict have failed, defeated by wrangling between rival clans.
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Kiplagat said the total bill for his peace process since October last year was $13-14 million with most of the funding coming from the European Union and its member states. He said U.S. financial support was modest and Washington was not "focused" on the issue.
Kiplagat laid out an almost implausibly rapid timetable for the talks. He said that in the next two weeks he expected the delegates to agree an interim federal charter for the lawless southerly regions of the country.
The Kenyan gathering would also form a parliament that would elect a speaker, deputy speaker and president of an interim government. The president would appoint a cabinet before leading his government back to Somalia to take up office in Mogadishu.
Kiplagat, who said he already had the names of "six or seven" presidential hopefuls, admitted that the delegates have not yet agreed on the size of parliament. He said delegates were talking variously of a body of 450, 225, 331 or 171 members.
"We will compromise," he said.
The talks will not rake up the sins of the past, he said, as it might threaten the broad representation of clans attending the talks. The conference is the most representative political gathering ever held of Somali's mostly southern-based warlords.
"We can deal with the problems of atrocities committed later but not now," he said. "We have everybody here and that's what will determine the success of this.