UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister on Friday called for United Nations (news - web sites) help to put his country together again and help fight terrorism so the nation does not become a haven for clandestine networks.

Dr. Ali Khalif Galaydh, head of a shaky transitional Somali government, said training, particularly for Somali security services, was needed within the country and for guarding its borders.

``Failure to do just that may lead to the creation of a vacuum that can breed terrorism,'' he told the U.N. Security Council in an all-day debate.

Diplomats speculated that Somalia was ripe as a hideout for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the top suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, should American bombing raids make it impossible for him and his backers to stay in Afghanistan (news - web sites).

Galaydh said less than 1 million in aid had been donated for police training or salaries or even food in lieu of pay over the past year. If security was key, he said, it was ``a bit baffling'' that so little aid was given to train police and establish other security forces.

Somalia, the object of a failed joint United Nations and United States peacekeeping mission between 1993 and 1995, has a transitional government that controls sections of the capital Mogadishu. But most of the country is still dominated by warlords and clans, who fought each other after ousting President Siad Barre in 1991.

Britain's envoy, Stewart Eldon told the council that ''terrorists are going to get squeezed and it is very important to deny them havens where they can operate somehow with impunity.''

``This has implications for us all, and it will be particularly important to avoid pockets of vacuum where they're able to operate because there is no authority to stop them doing that,'' he said.

French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte warned that Somalia could become ``another Afghanistan'' if it does not get help.

And Singapore's U.N. ambassador, Kishore Mahbubani, said the country could easily be exploited by terrorists. ``Like Afghanistan, Somalia has not been functioning as a state throughout the 1990s and remains awash with arms,'' he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) has declined to send a political peace-building mission to Somalia because of the security situation, to the consternation of many of the northeast African country's neighbors.

``We cannot wait until the perfect security conditions are prevalent in order to proceed to deploy the mission,'' Egypt's U.N. ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. He warned the council it was missing an opportunity to throw its weight behind the transitional government.

The U.N. Nairobi-based envoy for Somalia, David Stevens, said the country was awash with leaders who traveled abroad for support. Instead of ``divide and rule'' Somalians moved in the direction of ``divide and no rule,'' he said.

But Egypt's Gheit said the council was relying too much on Somalia's neighbors to give impetus to the peace process.

``Somalia did not receive the equal priority that the council has given to other conflicts within Africa,'' he said.