Annan wants Sierra Leone force boosted

The UN secretary general Kofi Annan has called for a substantial increase in the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone.

He wants some twenty-thousand troops instead of the current thirteen thousand, saying they're needed to extend the UN's presence across the country.

He's told the Security Council that the threat from the Revolutionary United Front rebels should not be under-estimated - a robust military presence by the international community remained essential for the foreseeable future.

Over the past few weeks, UN peacekeepers have been wounded in clashes with rebels and in May about five hundred of them were captured, but eventually released. Mr Annan envisages a two phase expansion, with the peacekeepers first consolidating their current positions and then gradually moving eastwards across Sierra Leone. Mr Annan said that eventually the peacekeepers may be required to deploy to the crucial diamond mining areas now in rebel hands.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service