The United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council have voted to establish a new peace-building commission.
It is designed to stop a return to violence in countries where conflicts have seemingly been resolved.
The commission is one of the few reforms recommended by the summit of world leaders in September that has been adopted by the 191-member assembly.
The Secretary General, Kofi Annan, said the decision was 'historic' because the current system lacked a dedicated entity to keep the peace in volatile countries once UN troops had left.
