BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union experts say the United States is pushing to get a regional peacekeeping force deployed in Somalia and this could trigger a wider war in the Horn of Africa, European Commission sources said on Tuesday.
But a U.S. State Department official in Washington, declining to be named, said: "The whole premise that the United States wants to forcibly impose an outside peacekeeping mission on to that situation in Somalia, that is 100 percent false."
The Commission sources said the EU executive’s department for African development had warned the bloc’s governments such a deployment could give cover for a larger military operation against the Islamists who control Mogadishu.
The warning given to envoys of the 25 EU states said a peacekeeping operation without the consent of all sides would be seen as an "invading force" and exacerbate the risk of conflict and of jihadist attacks, the sources said.
A U.N. Security Council committee is considering what action to take after receiving a report last week finding extensive illegal arms flows into Somalia, both to the Islamic Courts Union movement and to the shaky interim government.
The sources said U.S. officials had drafted a document calling for a partial lifting of the arms embargo and the deployment of a regional peacekeeping force.
MISGIVINGS
One EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some member states shared Brussels’ misgivings but Security Council permanent members Britain and France were reluctant to oppose Washington openly because of the "terrorism issue".
European Commission experts were also concerned the EU could come under pressure to fund a regional force through its Africa Peace Facility. The African Union has requested 15 million euros (10.1 million pounds) for the mission.
U.S. officials have said President George W. Bush’s administration is looking at a range of ideas for Somalia, possibly including a regional force. Washington has made clear neighbouring countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea should not be allowed to interfere in Somali affairs.
The U.S. State Department official said Washington did not want to impose a solution in Somalia.
The seven-country Eastern African regional grouping -- the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) -- had talked about the possibility of having some kind of peacekeeping authority under its aegis, said the official.
This might be the regional grouping EU experts were referring to, he said. "This (IGAD idea) is something that the United States would support only under the right circumstances."
IGAD consists of Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia.
EU ambassadors discussed Somalia on Tuesday. "The majority of countries broadly backed the Commission line," said one envoy, adding there would be further discussions in coming days.
The United States has accused the Islamic Courts, in the ascendancy in the lawless East African country, of harbouring al Qaeda operatives and warned that neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia could be targets of "extremist elements" from Somalia.
The Brussels experts say sending a regional security force could give a blank cheque for neighbouring countries to intervene in Somalia and legitimise an Ethiopian military presence which is denied by Addis Ababa.
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