By Harvey Morris at the United Nations

United Nations troop contributors are being asked to consider sending thousands of soldiers to Somalia in spite of renewed warnings that peacekeeping operations worldwide are already overstretched.

As battles raged this week in Mogadishu, the Somali capital that 700,000 civilians fled in the last year, the UN’s envoy to the country echoed African demands for a greater commitment by the international community to stem the violence.

Somalia plunged into fresh crisis as PM quits - Oct-29UN vows to defend Somalia regime - Aug-21US, Ethiopia accused over Somalia - Jul-27Somali peace talks adjourned after mortar attack - Jul-16Somalia peace hopes hit again - Jun-14Somalia struggles for lasting peace - Apr-27Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told the Security Council on Thursday: “I am not asking outside countries to become active for moral or altruistic reasons. They have a clearly mandated responsibility to become involved in a country where there are widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law.”

Although western states support a transitional government that has begun reaching out to Somali opposition groups, they are reluctant to become directly involved on the ground in spite of evidence that the conflict is a breeding ground for movements linked to al-Qaeda.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, has acknowledged a greater international deployment would have to be linked to greater stability in the east African state where the lawlessness is characterised by kidnappings, piracy and the widespread displacement of civilians.

In a report to the Security Council, however, he said troops contributors should be ready to send an 8,000-strong force if a broad-based political settlement were reached, rising to 27,000 if security were assured. At present the peacekeeping presence is limited to a 2,600 African Union force.

A bigger deployment would allow the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces that entered Somalia more than a year ago to support the transitional government in its war against Islamists.

Kofi Annan, Mr Ban’s predecessor, this week added his voice to those who say international peacekeepers are already overwhelmed by the extent of crises they are being asked to deal with, telling reporters in New York that the UN must “make it clear that there are clear limits to our capacities”.

He said once the number of peacekeepers in the field went above 100,000, the system became overstretched in the absence of adequate resources from member states. “I don’t think the UN will get the resources to go and play a major and active role in Somalia,” he said.

The UN and African Union have already fallen behind in deploying a 26,000 force in Darfur, partly for lack of crucial supplies, such as helicopters, from UN member states. In Somalia, meanwhile, the AU has asked for more than $800m to boost its own peacekeeping operations.

Somalia has been in almost constant turmoil since President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. US peacekeepers withdrew in 1993 after militias shot down two Black Hawk helicopters and killed 18 US personnel.

The State Department this week placed the allegedly al-Qaeda linked military wing of Somalia’s Council of Islamic Courts on the US list of foreign terrorist organisations. A spokesman for the faction most closely associated with al-Qaeda told Associated Press the group welcomed the designation and accused the US of targeting it because it was “fighting against Ethiopia, a Christian nation that had invaded our country”.

By Margaret Besheer - United Nations

The U.N. Security Council is looking at options, proposed by the secretary general, for stabilizing Somalia. They include the possibility of sending a U.N. peacekeeping force to that country to take over from the small African Union force currently there. From United Nations headquarters in New York, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more.

Diplomats say sending a U.N. peacekeeping force to Somalia is not an immediate possibility.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Zalmay Khalilzad, 26 Jan 2008 But it is one of several options Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has laid out for the council to consider in a new report on the situation in Somalia.

"We are not close to deploying the peacekeeping forces, but we are looking at a variety of options: the political presence of the U.N., what you could do in terms of maritime activities, what you could do in terms of strengthening AMISOM [The African Union Mission in Somalia], and considering under what circumstances one might do peacekeeping," he noted.

Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet, expressed concern to the council about sending peacekeepers into Somalia while the security situation remains inconsistent

People clean up after a roadside bomb exploded in the south of Mogadishu, Somalia, 3 Feb 2008 throughout the country and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is unable to maintain law and order.

"The security situation in many parts of Somalia, and particularly Mogadishu, remains complex, volatile and unpredictable," he noted. "Due to the complexity of the conflict, shifting alliances and extremist activity, the situation in south and central Somalia can change daily, making any location that is safe one day, potentially dangerous the next."

In his report, Mr. Ban laid out four scenarios for possible future developments in Somalia. Two include international troop deployments, but only if key conditions on the ground are met.

In one of those scenarios, Mr. Ban envisages improvements in both the political and security situations resulting in the consideration of a phased withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Mogadishu. Ethiopian forces have been assisting Somalia's transitional government for more than a year in its battle against an Islamist-led insurgency.

Under this scenario, Mr. Ban foresees a stabilization force of about 8,000 troops and police to prevent a security vacuum.

In another scenario, the U.N. chief says a viable political process, involving a power sharing agreement among the parties and the renunciation of violence, could lead to the withdrawal of Ethiopian forces and the deployment of more than 28,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to succeed the current African Union mission. That mission is made up of about 2,300 troops from Uganda and Burundi.

But in the current political and security climate, the secretary-general is only recommending the relocation of a limited number of U.N. staff from Kenya to Mogadishu and other parts of south and central Somalia. He also proposes the possibility of a Maritime Task Force, which would expand current French and Danish efforts to protect ships carrying humanitarian aid from pirates off Somalia's coast.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown.

Since an Ethiopian military campaign ousted Somali Islamists from power in December 2006, Islamist-led groups have been waging a violent anti-government insurgency.

The United Nations warns that violence and instability have left some two million Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance and displaced one million people from their homes

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The international community must overcome its reluctance to get involved in Somalia and help put an end to abuses there, a special U.N. envoy said on Thursday.

"While more people are talking about Somalia, there is still little action to stop the violence," Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told the Security Council during a debate on whether to send U.N. peacekeepers to the African country.

"I am not asking outside countries to become active for moral or altruistic reasons. They have a clearly mandated responsibility to become involved in a country where there are widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law."

Last month the Security Council extended for six months U.N. endorsement of an African Union mission in the lawless country. It consists of two Ugandan battalions, totaling 1,600 troops, and an advance party of 192 Burundians.

Deputy U.N. peacekeeping chief Edmond Mulet outlined four possible scenarios for deploying international peacekeepers. One called for the deployment of up to 27,000 U.N. troops.

While the 15 Security Council members agree the situation is dire, many are reluctant to send U.N. peacekeepers to Somalia, where Islamist insurgents, warlords and Ethiopian -backed Somali government forces fight battles every day.

Britain's U.N. ambassador John Sawers described Somalia as a "failed state" and said more political progress was needed before the council could consider deploying U.N. forces there.

"Until there's further progress on the political front, it's difficult to see scope for a fully-fledged peacekeeping force," he said.

"BLACK HAWK DOWN"

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the council needed be certain Somalis wanted international peacekeepers.

"For the moment we have the African troops. It's a start," he said.

Talk of outside intervention is still colored by memories of a battle in 1993 in which 18 U.S. troops and hundreds of Somali militiamen died. The incident inspired a Hollywood movie, "Black Hawk Down" and marked the beginning of the end for a U.S.-U.N. peacekeeping force.

Ould-Abdallah said: "Somalia remains a prisoner of the past, never forgiven for the violent actions carried out against the international community in the 1990s."

But he was encouraged by the country's Transitional Federal Government's attempt to reconcile with local factions and the government's decision to move back to the capital, Mogadishu, in January.

South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said it would take time to persuade the council to deploy peacekeepers.

"The ultimate goal is to have a U.N. peacekeeping mission on the ground. That is not going to happen tomorrow," he said.

The U.N. refugee agency has described the conflict, which has uprooted more than 1 million people, as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, even worse than Darfur.