Condoleezza Rice at the UN. (Reuters)

United Nations, Dec. 17 (Reuters): The UN Security Council today authorised countries fighting piracy off the Somali coast to take action also on Somalia’s territory and in its airspace, subject to consent by the country’s government.

The US said for the first time that the UN should deploy a peacekeeping force to war-torn Somalia and that Washington would push for a Security Council resolution by the end of the year to authorise one.

A surge in piracy in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes has pushed up insurance costs, brought pirates in the Horn of Africa country tens of millions of dollars in ransom and prompted foreign navies to rush to the area to protect merchant shipping.

But analysts say the international action has done little to deter the pirates, partly because the forces chasing them have not had the authority to take the battle onto land, where the pirates are based.

Yesterday’s US-drafted resolution, passed unanimously by the 15-nation council, extends that authority to countries that Somalia’s interim government has told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are cooperating with it to combat piracy.

States “may undertake all necessary measures in Somalia, including in its airspace, for the purpose of interdicting those who are using Somali territory to plan, facilitate or undertake acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea”, it says.

The Security Council session was attended by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and British foreign secretary David Miliband, who were at the world body for talks on a range of world issues.

Although the role of the Somali government was repeatedly stressed in the resolution, that government is weak and divided. The country has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago. Islamists control most of the south and feuding clan militias hold sway elsewhere.

It was also not clear what kind of forces would engage in land or air operations against the pirates or whether the US military would participate.

Multilateral rescue

A multilateral force rescued a Chinese ship from Somali pirates today, in a sign foreign navies patrolling the shipping lane are adopting tougher new tactics.

The Chinese boat Zhenhua 4 was one of four vessels seized by pirates yesterday. A Kenyan maritime group said the crew locked themselves in their cabins and radioed for help. A warship and two helicopters came and fired on the pirates, but did not kill them, it said.