By Claudia Parsons UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council members said on Monday it was vital to keep planning for a possible U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia despite the top U.N. official's view that such a force is unrealistic at this time. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this month security was so bad that it had not even been possible to send a technical assessment team to Somalia, a vital step in drawing up contingency plans for any peacekeeping force. "Under the prevailing political and security situation, I believe that the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping operation cannot be considered a realistic and viable option," Ban said in a report to the Security Council. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled Mogadishu this year amid persistent fighting since Somalia's transitional government came to power after ousting militant Islamists with the help of Ethiopian troops. The Somali government has long urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers to help it stamp its authority on the lawless Horn of Africa country where it faces a fierce insurgency. The Security Council was briefed on Somalia on Monday and expressed "strong concern about the deteriorating political, security and humanitarian situation," council president Marty Natalegawa, ambassador of Indonesia, told reporters. He said council members recognized the need for "greater financial, logistical and technical support" for an African Union peacekeeping force which so far has deployed only around 1,600 troops out of a total planned force of 8,000. "Members of the council also underlined the need to continue to actively develop contingency plans for the possible deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force as part of an enhanced U.N. integrated strategy in Somalia," Natalegawa said. Islamist rebels firing grenades attacked Ugandan peacekeepers early on Saturday in Mogadishu, though a spokesman for the African Union force said it suffered no casualties. The attack on the AU troops took place as a local non-governmental organization said nearly 470 civilians had been killed in fighting in Mogadishu since October. About 1,600 Ugandan soldiers have been in the city since March to support a fragile interim government backed by the West, the United Nations and regional power Ethiopia. One U.N. diplomat said that while the council accepted that conditions were not right on the ground at present to deploy U.N. peacekeepers, it was important to make plans so as to be able to do so quickly whenever it does become possible. "We need to get ourselves to a stage where we start finding a course of action we can do, rather than finding problems with actions we can't do," the diplomat said, adding that council members wanted the technical assessment mission to go to Somalia as soon as possible, but was not setting deadlines. "We all agree that a peacekeeping force should deploy when the conditions are right. What we now need to work on is how we get to those conditions." In his report to the council this month, Ban said the international community should consider alternatives for Somalia such as a "coalition of the willing," but Natalegawa said it was not clear who would join such a coalition. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
