The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki- Moon, has hailed Uganda for its role in conflict resolution in Africa while he pledged to keep Africa high on his agenda during his first visit to the continent after taking office.

"We appreciate the role Uganda has played in assisting to resolve conflicts, especially in the Great Lakes region," Ban was quoted by state-owned Sunday Vision as saying when he met the Minister for East African Cooperation Eriya Kategaya during a brief stopover on Friday night at Entebbe International Airport, 40 km south of Kampala.

Ban, the former South Korean Foreign Minister, made the comment on his way to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is also visiting Kenya and attending the African Union Summit in Ethiopia on Monday during his five day Africa tour.

"Africa is very well endowed with natural resources which should be exploited to develop the continent. Africa needs to harness its immense resources. The lack of infrastructure is impeding investments in Africa," he said.

As the first Asian in over 30 years to be elected in the highest office of the UN, he also talked of the situation in Somalia, during which he stressed that the international community needs to support the Transitional Federal Government.

"Somalia has very serious problems which pose a military and political challenge to the region. The United Nations Security Council will debate Somalia soon. We shall discuss it also in Addis Ababa," the UN chief added.

Uganda is ready to send a 1,500 strong peacekeeping force to Somalia under the authorization of the AU and in the framework of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional body that brings together Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

The mission is waiting for the formal approval of Ugandan Parliament after it was okayed by the legislators of the ruling party, which gave the de facto green light to the deployment.

The Somali transitional government has called for speedy deployment of African peacekeepers to help fill a security vacuum following the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.

The UN chief also revealed that he would urge Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir at the Africa Union Summit "to make a clear commitment" to accept the deployment of a joint UN-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur region.

Source: Xinhua