MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Islamic leaders yesterday issued an edit banning youthful Somalis from marrying without the consent of their parents, saying such unions violate Islam.

"It is against the teaching of our religion and parents do not approve of it," said Sheik Mahad Mohamed Sheik Hassan, chairman of the regional Islamic court in Wanlawien.

The edict was the latest step to impose strict religious rule as this chaotic nation emerges from more than a decade of anarchy.

Islamic leaders already have banned women from swimming at the main beach in Somalia's capital, live music, the viewing of films and sports, and the use of qat, the leafy semi-narcotic plant.

The marriage practice of "masaafo" - roughly equivalent to eloping - is common in Somalia because it allows young couples to wed without their parents scuttling the union because they deem the dowry too small.

Mohamedek Ali, a 21-year-old Somali, said the costs of a wedding were prohibitive for average Somalis and would prevent many marriages.

"They cannot ban what our forefathers practiced," he said. "All of us, including the mullahs, were born from elopement marriage."

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

In 2004, a transitional government was formed with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order. But the government never asserted much authority, and the Islamic group has stepped into the power vacuum.

The group's strict and often severe interpretation of Islam raises memories of Afghanistan's Taliban, which was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign for harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida fighters.

The United States has accused Somalia's Islamic group of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 

Bin Laden has portrayed Somalia as a battleground in his war on the West.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)