UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security Council agreed to send almost 6,000 more peacekeeping troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), less than half the number the United Nations had asked for.
"With all the demands on our peacekeeping resources, we've had to address it in what we think is a focussed and prioritised way," said envoy Stuart Holliday of the United States, which pays 27 percent of UN peacekeeping costs.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had asked for 13,100 soldiers to add to the force on the ground in the vast central African nation, which is struggling to rebuild from five years of civil war that left nearly three million dead.
"We think that keeping the numbers in that range is what's necessary to meet the actual mission tasks," Holliday told reporters on Wednesday.
The United States has not been alone in expressing concerns about the mounting challenges of UN peace operations, with cost an issue as much as the difficulty in finding nations willing to commit troops.
Annan has acknowledged that the success in resolving armed conflicts worldwide has increased demands on a global UN peacekeeping operation that is nearing the record deployment levels of the 1990s.
Diplomats said the United States, Britain and France had compromised on a maximum of 5,900 more soldiers for the DRC, including civilian police, despite Annan's hopes of a much larger force.
A resolution from the 15-nation Security Council formally authorising the scaled-back expansion was due to be approved by vote on Friday, diplomats said.
The measure would extend the mandate of the current force for six months and give the council the option of further enlarging the number of troops at that time, they said.
The draft resolution up for vote would send most of the new soldiers into the DRC's volatile eastern region near the borders with Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The restive region, awash in the natural resources that have given rise to hopes of a successful national rebuilding, continues to be wracked by factional violence despite the end of the DRC's civil war.
The cost-conscious United States insisted that the police force would count as part of the expanded force -- a stumbling-block issue that was finally resolved on Wednesday, diplomats said.