Mogadishu, Somalia ? Somalia’s nearly powerless government said Friday it would boycott peace talks with an Islamic militia that has seized control of most of the country’s south, noting the group wanted to topple the leadership and had massacred civilians.

The boycott was the latest setback in a swiftly deteriorating relationship between the internationally recognized government and the radical militia, which the United States accuses of harboring al-Qaida and wanting to impose a Taliban-style theocracy.

“The Islamic group has extreme views which cannot go with the world’s civilized and democratic system,” government minister Ismail Mohamud Hurreh told The Associated Press on the eve of today’s talks in Khartoum, Sudan, under the auspices of the Arab League.

Abdallah Mubarak, the Arab League’s special envoy to Somalia, said peace talks would take place at a date to be determined, but that Sudan’s president would talk with the Islamic leaders today.