UNITED NATIONS: Somalia late on Wednesday urged the early deployment of a UN peacekeeping or stabilising force on its soil but key Western countries said concrete planning options were needed first.

“We are hoping that the (UN Security) Council will make a decision in the coming weeks ... (and that) the UN will order some kind of international presence, either a peacekeeping force or an international stabilizing force,” Somali Foreign Minister Ali Ahmad Jama told reporters.

He said that once the UN-brokered truce deal initialed in Djibouti June 9 by the Somali government and its main political foes went into into effect, “we are hoping that violence will go down and a climate conducive to deployment will be created.” He said he expected the Djibouti accord to be formally signed “within three weeks at the most.” The Djibouti agreement was initialed by the Somali transitional government and several top leaders from the main Islamist-dominated opposition alliance.

However, other leading Islamist officials and military commanders have rejected it, insisting that Ethiopian troops propping up the Somali government unilaterally pull out of Somalia before peace talks can start.