The UN Security Council has agreed to withdraw some 2,000 peacekeepers from Democratic Republic of Congo by 30 June.  However, it has postponed a decision on Kinshasa's request that all troops leave by 2011.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted on Friday  a resolution that "authorizes the withdrawal of up to 2,000 UN military personnel by June 30, 2010 from areas where the security situation permits."

Called MONUC, the UN force is the world's largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation with more than 20,000 personnel.

Renamed
The Security Council agreed to rename it the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) from July 1.

The council resolution ruled that the renamed UN mission would be deployed until June 30, 2011 and will comprise a maximum of 19,815 military personnel, 760 military observers, 391 police personnel and 1,050 members of formed police units.

President Joseph Kabila has called for MONUC's complete pullout from his mineral-rich country by late 2011. He has insisted the first contingent should depart before June 30, when the country celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium.

Electoral ambitions
Kabila, elected president in 2006 for a five-year term, appears to be trying to burnish his nationalistic credentials ahead of presidential polls scheduled for late next year.

But council diplomats and aid groups believe DRC authorities will be unable to ensure security in the east of their country, where rebels such as Rwandan Hutu rebels and Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are causing havoc, by the 2011 deadline.

sources: AFP/BBC/UN