Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China called for the United Nations to take a peacekeeping role in Somalia as Ethiopian forces withdraw from the Horn of Africa nation, which is facing a humanitarian crisis.

“The international community has to pay more attention to the peace process in Somalia,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said during a two-day visit to Uganda, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. “There should be more inputs from the UN.”

China and Uganda plan to press the UN Security Council to help stabilize Somalia, Yang said. An African Union force of 3,400 soldiers -- from Uganda and Burundi -- has proven too small to bring peace to the country.

The U.S. is asking the UN Security Council to establish a peacekeeping mission in Somalia by June 1. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last month rejected the American push for such a mission, saying there weren’t enough troops available to deploy.

Under the American proposal, the force would help provide humanitarian aid, assist in peace talks between the country’s provisional government and rebel groups, and train the national army and police force, according to a draft resolution.

Somalia hasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. U.S.- backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in December 2006 to remove the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist alliance that briefly controlled much of the country.

Islamist Insurgency

Ethiopia’s attempt to reinstall the UN-backed transitional government in the capital, Mogadishu, was met with an insurgency by Islamist and clan-based militias in Somalia.

As a result of the insurgency, the transitional government controls only parts of Mogadishu and the southern town of Baidoa, while Islamists from the al-Shabaab militia, a faction of the Islamic Courts Union, control much of southern Somalia.

On Dec. 29, the president of the transitional government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, resigned following a power struggle with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

More than 800,000 Somalis have been forced from their homes by the fighting, while an estimated 3.2 million people, more than 40 percent of the country’s population, are in need of humanitarian aid. The seas off Somalia have become the world’s most dangerous for commercial shippers as the anarchy has led to rapid growth of piracy and kidnappings.

China last month deployed three warships to the waters off Somalia to protect vessels from pirates.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Peng in Hong Kong at jpeng7@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 13, 2009 22:54 EST