The United States is urging the U.N. Security Council to agree to demands by the government in Mogadishu to lift the arms embargo on Somalia.

The U.S. push comes after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last week that the 15-nation council should consider lifting the arms embargo to help rebuild Somalia's security forces and consolidate military gains against al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants.

The Security Council imposed the embargo in 1992 to cut the flow of arms to feuding warlords, who a year earlier ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged Somalia into civil war.

A U.S. official said Washington was merely backing a request the Somali government and African nations have been making.

But Britain and France have been reluctant to support ending the arms embargo. The Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, which monitors compliance with the sanctions regime, has also opposed the idea of lifting it.

From Reuters