Security Council planning for UN peacekeepers in Somalia

The Security Council on Thursday set conditions for a UN takeover of peacekeeping in Somalia from the overstretched African Union and urged the United Nations to move its Somalia political office from Kenya into the conflict-wracked nation. A resolution adopted unanimously by the council states for the first time that it will consider deploying UN peacekeepers "at an appropriate time" subject to progress in improving political reconciliation and security conditions on the ground. The British-sponsored resolution was changed at the last minute at South Africa's insistence to strengthen the language on a future UN peacekeeping force.