Council members have expressed support for the proposals. The Security Council blames recent fighting in Angola on Unita, which has refused to disarm and withdraw from territory in accordance with a 1994 peace agreement.

Fighting flared in December after five years of fragile peace.

UN reconsiders withdrawal

Meanwhile, the UN is looking at ways of keeping a presence in Angola after its mandate there expires later this month. The remaining 1,000 UN peacekeepers are due to leave the country by March 20, and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos called last week for all but UN humanitarian staff to leave. But UN diplomats fear that a pull-out would cause the situation in Angola to get even worse.

The president said that the UN mission could no longer continue because of the rejection of the peace accords by rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, who had initiated "a full-scale war in almost all of national territory" in December.

The UN special representative for Angola, Issa Diallo, said he had suggested to the Angolan government that it "leave the door open" on a continuing UN presence which would include a political and possibly a military component.

Angolan government minister Higino Carneiro is due to meet the Security Council on Friday, and UN diplomats hope he may be persuaded to accept such a plan.