The United Nations Security Council has voted to extend the mandate of an international police force in Haiti for another year.

The UN mission, which has some two-hundred-and-eighty members, has been training the Haitian police.

The Security Council noted that the civilian police mission played a key role in consolidating democracy and the legal system in Haiti.

Russia and China, who objected to the extension, abstained.The Haitian President, Rene Preval, had asked the UN to stay.

However, some members of parliament said the presence of the UN officers violated a recently passed law prohibiting foreign security forces on Haitian soil.