UN council sets urgent meeting on Somalia conflict

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 26 (Reuters) The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting today on the conflict in Somalia after a week of fighting between Somali Islamists and interim government forces backed by Ethiopia.

The 15-nation council was due at the 1930 ist session to be briefed on the crisis by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall of Guinea, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Qatari UN Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the Security Council president for December, requested the urgent meeting on a day that Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces, supporting Somalia's weak interim government, had killed up to 1,000 Islamist fighters.

There was no independent verification of his statement, and the Islamists also claim to have killed hundreds.

REUTERS SP RK2145