Eu To Train Somali Security Forces

The European Union plans to train hundreds of Somali security forcesand possibly expand its anti-piracy mission off Somalia's coast in aneffort to bring stability to the war-torn Horn of Africa nation.

The agreement to trainSomali forces was reached during a meeting of European Union defenseministers in Brussels. The details of the plan remain sketchy, but theidea is to train the Somalis in Uganda in close collaboration with theUgandan government - a main supplier of African Union peacekeepingtroops in Somalia.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana addresses the media at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 17 Nov 2009At a press conference on Tuesday, EU foreignpolicy chief Javier Solana said up to 2,000 Somali security forces hadrequested special training to fight against a growing armed insurgencyin Somalia.

"How much we're going to do and how muchit's going to be with the forces of the AfricanUnion and Uganda in particular is something to be discussed. and thesame thing goes with the duration," he said.

"Then what is the speed ofthe distribution of tasks between Ugandan trainers and our trainers.But it will not be a big operation in the sense it will not requiretrainers in the thousands. It will probably be in the hundreds, not thethousands," he added.

EU officials say they do not believe the Somalioperation will dilute separate efforts to build up a European policetraining mission in Afghanistan.

The EU also plans to extend itsanti-piracy mission Operation off Somalia's shores into 2010. Solanasaid the 27-member bloc is also considering broadening the operation totarget Somali ports and so-called "mother ships" that provide supportto the pirates.

"Now some ideas have been placed on the table onmaking some focalization of the ports in which we know the piratesoperate and something with the mother ships, which are really deep intothe sea, where...some pirates get their help from there," he said."This is going to analyzed by the military authorities and by us to seeif something can be done."

Somali pirates have attacked hundredsof vessels in recent years and they are now expanding their terrain. OnTuesday, an EU naval force reported that Somali pirates had captured achemical tanker with a North Korean crew off the Seychelles Islands.Separately, Spain announced Somali pirates had release a trawler afterholding a crew of 36 hostage for more than six weeks.