UN approves peacekeeping reforms

The United Nations Security Council as approved broad reforms of its peacekeeping operations.

The resolution follows a report criticising UN peacekeeping missions for being underfunded and lacking in coherant planning.

The report called on the Council to give peackeepers realistic mandates and approve missions only when it had enough troops.

The approval comes as the UN is struggling to find 5-thousand soldiers to replace those due to withdraw from the conflict in Sierra Leone.

The council rejected a proposal by Bangladesh that would have required the five permanent members of the council to each provide five per cent of the troops required. The UN currently has more than 38-thousand troops stationed in fifteen areas around the world.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service