LEWISTON – Somali leaders and Mayor Larry Raymond pledged Friday to work together to resolve friction after the mayor warned of a strain on resources if more Somalis moved to the city.

They met behind closed doors, and Somali leaders said afterward they understand the social and economic pressures facing the city.

“Like all families, we have our misunderstandings, but families draw strength from resolving their issues,” the Somali elders said in a statement released at a news conference after the meeting at City Hall.

The mayor, who did not attend the news conference, said in a statement that his three-page letter urging members of the Somali community to discourage family and friends from moving to the city was misunderstood.

He also said it was a mistake to release his letter to the Somali community without meeting with individuals first. And he was particularly troubled that Somalis viewed the letter as an attempt to foment tension.

Earlier, Somalis said the letter was “an attempt to agitate and incite” and a “license of violence against our people.”

“Those who have interpreted my letter as a ‘call to battle’ or have used it as a ‘call to draw lines in the sand’ totally misunderstood my message,” Raymond said in his statement.

Raymond, a former judge and prosecutor, said he does not condone anyone who takes actions against the newcomers.

“I am especially speaking to any person who believes that our new Somali residents deserve to be harmed or treated any differently than we treat our own parents, children and friends,” he said.

In his original letter, Raymond wrote that the city of 36,000, which has absorbed more than 1,000 Somalis in 18 months, cannot continue the influx of newcomers “without negative results for all.” He wrote that the city is “maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally.”

Somali elders responded by lashing out at Raymond as an “ill-informed leader who is bent toward bigotry.”

They also said they planned to file a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, seeking a review to ensure Lewiston’s programs and services do not discriminate on the basis of national origin.

On Friday, the elders softened their stance. They said they were grateful to the mayor for meeting with them, and they said they understood the “social and economic pressure that new entrants bring to the community.”

“We believe that we are part of Lewiston’s future. We believe this is a city where we and our children can prosper. To that end, we the city, and the mayor are at one working for the future of Lewiston,” the elders wrote.

The meeting came a day after Maine’s economic development chief warned that the friction could create an image problem for the city.

“This does have the potential of negatively impacting the perception that these communities have worked so hard to gain,” Commissioner Steven Levesque of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development said Thursday.

Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe circulated hundreds of copies of a letter pledging this week that his office would “strive to ensure that Maine is a safe, tolerant and respectful place for everyone to live.”

Rowe’s office said the letters were delivered to Somali elders in Lewiston and to places in the area where Somalis gather. “I am writing to let you know how important you are to our Maine community,” Rowe wrote.