New York  - Citing the continued lack of security in Somalia as a threat to international peace and security, the UN Security Council on Thursday imposed a travel ban and a freeze of financial assets on some individuals considered obstacles to the peace process.

The council also imposed an arms embargo on those individuals or groups to be designated by a UN committee.

The measures are not related to the waves of hijackings of ships by pirates of the Somali coast, but are aimed at strengthening the process of ending lawlessness and violence destabilizing the transitional government.

South Africa's UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo said the humanitarian situation in Somalia has continued to deteriorate while the fighting has displaced a high number of people.

"Lasting peace will continue to elude us as long as certain groups remain outside of the peace process and we call on them to lay down their arms and become warriors for peace instead of being agents of war," Kumalo said.

The council was considering deploying a peacekeeping operation to assist the transitional government carry out the peace programme to end the civil war ravaging Somalia for years.