The U.N. Security Council has not ruled out the idea of a U.N. peacekeeping force for Somalia, a top envoy said Saturday after meeting with African Union officials to discuss problems in Somalia and Sudan, AP reported. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has come out against such a force, but the fierce fighting that has ravaged Mogadishu, the Somali capital, in the last few days appeared to weigh on the diplomats' minds. «The question of a United Nations peacekeeping mission remains on the table,» Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers told journalists after hours of talks. Sawers is leading the U.N. Security Council on its eight-day African trip, which will take envoys to Rwanda, Congo and Liberia. More than 100 civilians have been killed in the last week and at least 30,000 people forced to flee their homes in Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous cities. Diplomats said up to 400 foreign Islamic militants were behind the anti-government attacks. Somalia has not had an effective government for nearly two decades. An intricate peace deal led to the election of a moderate Islamic leader as president and Ethiopia withdrawing its troops after a two-year deployment. Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed's government also promised to implement Shariah law, but even that has failed to persuade hard-line Islamic groups to end a two-year insurgency. The U.N. Security Council condemned the violence in Mogadishu on Friday and strongly supported Ahmed's government.
