EU pledges Somali security boost

Extra funding could increase the number of Somali government soldiers

The European Union says it will pledge at least 60m euros ($78m) towards boosting security in Somalia at a donors meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

The international donor conference aims to raise 200m euros ($260m) for the African Union peacekeeping effort and to create national security forces.

Those forces could include a 6,000-strong national security force and police force of 10,000 officers.

Correspondents say such forces might contain pirates off Somalia's coast.

The world's attention has largely focused on Somali piracy recently, especially since the high seas drama in which US Navy Seals killed three pirates rescuing Richard Phillips - the abducted US captain of a cargo ship.

Benchmark

One of the aid agencies operating in Somalia, the International Rescue Committee, has urged donors not to allow the piracy to divert attention from the humanitarian crisis which, the agency said, was affecting hundreds of thousands of Somalis.

The EU hopes the announcement of its financial pledge will be a benchmark for other donors at a time when the situation could hardly be more critical, says the BBC's world affairs correspondent, Mike Wooldridge.

The EU, which is hosting the conference with the United Nations, considers Somalia now has its first credible government in many years, though in reality it currently controls little beyond a few areas of the capital, Mogadishu.