The United States has said it will not deal with the man who is expected to be the new head of Somalia's Islamic court.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on a UN list of al-Qaeda associates, has been named head of the country’s Council of Islamic Courts, which has pledged to enforce sharia law.
The council is a parliament for the Islamists, whose militias seized the capital Mogadishu from US-backed warlords earlier this month.
However, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the US had made no decision about relations with the group as a whole.
