The United Nations Security Council wants an independent investigation into allegations of rampant corruption and the diversion of aid in Somalia, Mexican Ambassador to the UN Claude Heller said on Tuesday.

"There is a large consensus for the idea of an independent investigation that should be carried out," Heller told reporters after a closed-door session of the 15-nation Council. Mexico is one of the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council.

The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia presented a report to the Council on Tuesday after sections of it had been leaked to news organizations.

The report said Somalia's transitional government is weakened by corruption "at all levels" and accused corruption in the World Food Program's (WFP) Somalia operations. Local WFP staffers, militants and food distributers have diverted up to half of all UN food deliveries for Somalia, where 3.7 million Somalis are dependent on aid.

A Somali businessman with ties to al Shabaab, for example, worked for the WFP and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) when he likely kept ransom for the release of kidnapped aid workers, said the report, which called for a probe into the diversion of UN aid to Islamist militant groups.

The Council is expected to meet in the next 10 days to hear directly from the WFP, said Heller, who chairs the Council's Somalia Sanctions Committee. The committee is conducting its own investigation of the allegations against WFP and Somali's government.

Last week, Executive Director of the WFP Josette Sheeran wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times, saying the food agency will "cooperate with any independent inquiry."

Early this year, the WFP suspended much of its work in Somali for safety reasons.