The United States and Ecuador circulated a draft resolution asking the United Nations to begin planning for a U.N. peacekeeping operation to replace the Kenya-led mission now in the Caribbean nation helping police to quell gang violence.

The United Nations Security Council began considering on Friday a draft resolution to extend the mandate for an international security mission helping Haiti fight armed gangs and ask the U.N. to plan for it to become a formal peacekeeping mission.

The fate of the ongoing Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission in Haiti now hangs in the balance following reports that the United States (US) plans to replace it with a peacekeeping operation led by the United Nations (UN).