by Emmanuel Goujon
The bloc's 15-member Peace and Security Council underlined the new opportunities for peace in the Horn of Africa country created by a June 9 agreement signed in Djibouti by the transitional government and the main opposition coalition.
The council -- Africa's top conflict prevention body -- called on the United Nations to find the replacement peacekeeping mission for the current Ethiopian-dominated force foreseen by the Djibouti agreement.
The council "decides to extend the mandate of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) for an additional period of six months, with effect from 17 July 2008," a statement said.
But it "expresses hope that, with the agreement of 9 June, the international community will provide increased support to the efforts aimed at bringing to a definite end the violence that has plagued Somalia for about two decades."
In particular it called for the "early deployment, in accordance with... the 9 June agreement, of a United Nations peacekeeping operation that would take over AMISOM and support the long-term stabilisation and reconstruction of the country."
According to the agreement, Ethiopians would withdraw after the UN deployed peacekeepers within 120 days of an armistice taking effect, a key demand of the opposition.
The council noted that the existing AU force remained massively under strength, with just 2,600 of the 8,000 troops pledged actually on the ground.
It urged member states to "provide the required troops and other personnel to enable AMISOM to reach its authorised strength" and called on "member states and partners to provide financial and logistical support to facilitate the completion of the deployment of the mission and the sustenance of its operations."
Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and the opposition umbrella group the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) reached a series of agreements at the UN-sponsored talks in Djibouti, including a three-month truce which is to come into force within a month.
But Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an influential radical cleric whom Washington accuses of links to Al-Qaeda, has rejected the deal signed by ARS chief Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, saying it fails to set a clear deadline for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.
Aweys and his allies stayed away from the talks, saying they would not take part unless Ethiopian troops backing government forces since late 2006 pulled out of Somalia.
Since their ouster early last year by the joint Somali -Ethiopian force, the Islamists have waged a guerrilla war, which according to international rights groups and aid agencies, has left at least 6,000 civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands.
The 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre paved the way for a breakdown in the state machinery and a rise in factional warfare that has seen most of Somalia beyond the control of any recognised central government ever since.
Source: AFP, July 01, 2008