By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The United States wants to get U.N. authority for countries pursuing pirates off the coast of Somalia to hunt them down on land, U.N. diplomats said on Wednesday.

They said the U.S. delegation had drafted a text it hoped would form the basis of a resolution for the Security Council to approve next week, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be at the U.N. for talks on African and Middle East issues.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who will both be in New York on Monday, may also attend the Somalia talks, which are scheduled for Tuesday, diplomats said.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff declined to provide details of the U.S. text but confirmed that Washington hoped to see a resolution adopted.

"There is complete council solidarity and consensus on the importance of dealing with the piracy problem and thwarting it, and dealing with it with every tool at our disposal," he said.

"Clearly this implies both at sea and, if needed, with the consent of the Somalis, on land," Wolff told reporters.

It was not clear what form that Somali consent would take. The country has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago.

Islamists now control most of the south. Feuding, heavily armed clan militias hold sway in many other areas and a weak, Western-backed interim government has little authority outside the capital of Mogadishu.

Diplomats familiar with the text said it was not clear what kind of force would be permitted for countries in "hot pursuit" of pirates who decide to bring the chase onto dry land. It was also unclear if the U.S. military would participate.

A surge in piracy in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes has pushed up insurance costs, brought Somali pirates tens of millions of dollars in ransom and prompted foreign navies to rush to the area to protect merchant shipping.

There are already several international naval operations in the area in the Horn of Africa, including a NATO anti-piracy mission, but the piracy has continued.

The European Union agreed on Monday to launch anti-piracy naval operations off Somalia involving warships and aircraft.

Like other U.N. member states, the United States remains haunted by a 1993 debacle in Somalia in which 18 U.S. troops were killed by local fighters.

Lavrov will be in New York for a meeting of the Middle East Quartet -- including the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union. Diplomats said they did not expect any breakthrough at that meeting.

Miliband will be attending a Security Council briefing on Monday on Zimbabwe, where the chaos of economic collapse has been compounded by an outbreak of cholera that is threatening neighboring states. (Editing by David Storey)

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