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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Somalia's transitional government urged the Security Council on Friday to speed up its planning for the possible deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force to replace African Union troops in the war-wracked nation.
Somalia's U.N. Ambassador Elmi Ahmed Duale endorsed a recent appeal by African heads of state to the council "to urgently take steps for the early deployment of United Nations peacekeeping operations to further enhance peace in Somalia."
Somalia has not had a functioning government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the poverty-stricken nation of 7 million into chaos. Its weak transitional government, backed by Ethiopian troops, is struggling to quash an Islamic insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians this year.
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