Bush to push plan to curb piracy

WASHINGTON – In one of its final foreign policy initiatives, the Bush administration plans to push for a broader international accord on how to suppress piracy in waters off Somalia’s lawless coast, officials say.

Without committing more U.S. Navy ships, the administration wants to tap into what officials see as a growing enthusiasm in Europe and elsewhere for more effective coordinated action against the Somali pirates. Administration officials view the current effort as lacking coherence, as pirates score more and bigger shipping prizes.

Spearheading the administration’s case, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice intends to make a pitch at a United Nations anti-piracy meeting in New York on Tuesday with her counterparts from a number of nations with a stake in solving the problem.

“I expect in the coming weeks we will work within the U.N. to give the international system better policy tools to more effectively address the problem and its root causes,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

That includes pressing for an international peacekeeping force in Somalia to replace an Ethiopian-led force that is to depart soon, he said. The pirates are Somalis based in camps near coastal port villages. The U.S. says they have links to an Islamic extremist group that has taken control of much of the country.