The UN Security Council today authorised an African Union (AU) force in chaotic Somalia for another six months and asked the secretary general to develop plans for a possible UN troop replacement.
In a resolution, approved unanimously, the council asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to develop within 30 days "contingency planning for the possible deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation" to replace AU troops.
This would include sending another assessment mission to the African nation.
Clashes between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government troops have intensified in the past two months, despite the convening of a peace congress between Somalia's many clans and factions.
Somalia has been a byword for anarchy since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Few expect the United Nations to field a large force rather than provide financial or technical support to the AU unless fighting dies down and a viable peace process take place.
African nations are pressing the UN to supply backup for Somalia similar to that initially provided for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and then field its own force.
The AU mission, which should number 8,000, so far consists of only 1,600 Ugandans.
Calling the resolution "a very important decision," Congo Republic Ambassador Pascal Gayama, the current council president, said that at a minimum the United Nations should provide "financial, technical and logistical support...so that African counties would be able to operate".
The UN envoy to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, told reporters last week that prospects for a UN mission continued to depend on political progress in Somalia. But he said the AU expected UN troops to replace or absorb its contingents in six months.
The AU's Peace and Security Council last month agreed to extend its force in Somalia for six months and called for the UN to deploy peacekeepers.
The Security Council's resolution also threatened unspecified "measures" against those trying to thwart a peaceful political process, threatening force against the government or the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISON, or undermining stability in the region.