UN Council wary on Somali call for peacekeepers

UNITED NATIONS, June 29 (Reuters) Somalia's prime minister urged the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to his country, but council members told him they wanted to see political progress toward peace first.

''It's not fair to say, 'Make peace and I will come and keep it,''' Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told reporters after addressing the Security Council yesterday. ''It's not right to ignore or neglect the interests of the Somali people.'' Islamist-led rebels have been fighting the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies since January when they were ousted from the capital, Mogadishu. An African Union peacekeeping force has yet to be fully deployed.

''Somalia is at a critical crossroads and it is the right time for the United Nations Security Council to assist in the maintenance of peace and security,'' Gedi told the council, according to a text of his speech seen by Reuters.

He said Somalia wanted to see the African Union's AMISOM force transformed into a UN mission -- a request that puts pressure on the Security Council at a time when it is preparing to send a hybrid AU-UN force of more than 20,000 peacekeepers to Sudan's Darfur region.

Diplomats said all 15 council members except Congo were cautious about a UN peacekeeping force, although they expressed support for the transitional Somali government.

A report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated to the Security Council warned that a UN mission would likely face major threats from ''radical groups'' and some clan leaders.

'MASSIVE UNDERTAKING' ''Even in the best-case scenario, addressing the problems of Somalia will be a demanding, dangerous and massive undertaking,'' said the report.

Based on a scenario where hostilities had largely ceased, a contingency plan drawn up for Ban saw a need for more than 20,000 military personnel.

''The initial assessment suggests that a large, very robust and mobile military force would be required,'' it said.

Outside intervention in Somalia has a dismal history. The killing of US troops there in late 1993 in the ''Black Hawk Down'' battle marked the beginning of the end for a US-UN peacekeeping force that left Somalia in 1995.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters earlier the international community supported Gedi's government, but expected political progress before considering sending troops.

''There's a window of opportunity to move forward on the political (front) and my worry is if that isn't grasped vigorously enough, the country will spiral down into further conflict and chaos,'' Jones Parry said.

''We need to get AMISOM reinforced, and if peace is brought about and there's sufficient agreement, the United Kingdom will support a UN peacekeeping presence in Somalia,'' he said.

''We can only do so much. You can't put peacekeeping troops in if there's no peace to keep, that's the reality.'' In the latest in a wave of guerrilla strikes in the lawless Horn of Africa country, a roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Mogadishu yesterday and two aid workers were shot and killed.

Crucial to establishing peace will be a national reconciliation congress that Gedi told the council would be ''inclusive'' -- a tall order in a country where so many factions and clans have been vying for power for some 16 years.

The congress has been postponed twice but Gedi told reporters it would start on July 15 and be open to all, including former Islamist combatants, as long as they renounced violence and came under the umbrella of clan leaders.

Reuters KK VP0555