Senior UN official discusses Ituri crisis with Kabila

A top UN official said on Friday that the pace at which transitional governmental institutions could be installed would affect the level of support from the international community in establishing peace in the Ituri District of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

"I think that signals coming from the Congo are important," Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said.

"That is to say, the more it becomes clear that there is progress in the political process, the more the international community will be willing to help," he said.

Guehenno arrived in Kinshasa, capital of the DRC, on Thursday. On Friday, he held talks with President Joseph Kabila on the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force for Ituri, where some 50,000 people have died and 500,000 have been displaced by war.

So far, Britain, Canada, France, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa have indicated that they might consider providing military support for the peace effort in the DRC. Under the UN Mission in the DRC, Uruguay has already sent 800 men to Bunia, the principal town in Ituri.

"In the opening phase, we would deploy two task forces to secure the region," Guehenno said. "Their most important task would be to demobilise, repatriate and reintegrate ex-fighters, while the task forces would, by their very presence, contribute towards the stabilisation of the situation."

Guehenno will visit Bunia on Sunday.