Annan urges UN force for Liberia

By Greg Barrow BBC correspondent at the United Nations

The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has proposed that a force of 15,000 UN peacekeepers be sent to Liberia.

The Security Council is due to consider the proposal later on Tuesday.

The force would begin to be deployed at the start of October but would not be expected to reach full strength until next year.

Liberia as a whole remains highly unstable

In a report to the Security Council, Mr Annan said one of the most important tasks would be the disarmament of armed groups, including child soldiers.

Mr Annan is clearly aware of the scale of the task a UN peacekeeping force will face once it is operational in Liberia.

For that reason he is proposing a force which would operate under a Chapter Seven mandate - a technical term that would give them the most robust mode of operation available under the UN charter.

Challenges

In his report to the UN Security Council, Mr Annan says that despite positive political developments in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, the country as a whole remains highly unstable.

More than 30,000 members of militia groups, armed forces and paramilitary personnel are still active in the countryside.

Among these are large numbers of child soldiers.

Mr Annan says that the disarmament and demobilisation of these armed groups is one of the greatest challenges in Liberia.

While UN agencies working in co-ordination with peacekeepers will be expected to assist in this task Mr Annan says that, ultimately, the success or failure of the disarmament and demobilisation process rests in the hands of the warring parties themselves.