REUTERS

A woman carries her baby as she queues for food in a camp established by the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for the internally displaced people in Mogadishu.

New York - The UN Security Council heard a formal request from the African Union for permission to increase the size of its peacekeeping force in Somalia.

The union's commissioner for peace and security, Ramtane Lamamra, told the council late on Wednesday that it wanted to expand its presence in Somalia from the mandated 12 000 troops to more than 17 700.

The union first announced the plan last week at a leaders meeting in Addis Ababa. The UN decision was expected to take a few weeks.

The peacekeeping force has backed the weak central government since early 2007 and this year made major gains against the Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab.

The members of the Security Council expressed their “full support” for the peacekeepers and said in a statement they were in favour of “predictable, reliable and timely resources” to support them.

Germany's UN ambassador, Peter Wittig, said he supported the request for an expanded mandate. “The peacekeeping mission in Somalia is an excellent example of an African solution for an African crisis,” he said.

The plan of the African Union, whose commanders have long requested more troops, calls for another 5 700 soldiers from Djibouti.

It also would authorise Kenyan forces, which entered southern Somalia independently in October after a spate of kidnappings it blamed on al-Shabaab, to be re-designated as union peacekeepers.

The force's mandate was also extended for another year at the Addis Ababa meeting.

The force has around 9 000 troops at present in Somalia. Working with the Somali government, they have forced al-Shabaab out of the capital, Mogadishu, although the insurgents still control much of southern and central Somalia.

Kenyan soldiers, pro-government forces and Ethiopian troops are also fighting the insurgents on multiple fronts, pushing deeper towards their coastal stronghold of Kismayo.

Al-Shabaab began its insurgency in early 2007 after Ethiopia's invasion to oust an Islamist regime and gained early support for its anti-Ethiopian stance before its hard-line policies alienated many Somalis. - Sapa-dpa