The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to send 3,000 additional UN peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent a new war in the country's east.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, is the world's biggest UN peacekeeping operation.
It will be increased temporarily to just over 20,000 troops and police once the reinforcements are deployed.
Aid organisations have criticised MONUC for allowing a humanitarian disaster to develop in eastern Congo.
The area is the size of France and a quarter of a million people have fled recent fighting between the Congolese army and Tutsi rebels.
France's UN ambassador, Jean-Maurice Ripert, who led negotiations on the French-drafted resolution, told reporters that it would probably 'take some weeks' to get the reinforcements to Congo. UN officials say it may be months.
Mr Ripert also suggested that MONUC needed to be more aggressive in protecting civilians and implementing its mandate.
'The rules of engagement, if they are strong enough, they are not being used strongly enough,' he said.
Congo's UN Ambassador, Atoki Ileka, said that he would have liked more than 3,000 new peacekeepers but welcomed any increase.
He said the boost would only make a difference if countries contributing troops removed restrictions that have been making it difficult for MONUC commanders to move forces into hotspots in North Kivu province.
Some national contingents were reporting directly to their national capitals instead of to MONUC commanders, he said, and those troops 'tend to be reluctant to engage' in combat.
'We need to have some more robust rules of engagement of the UN,' he said.
