Liberation Of Kosovo: Peacekeepers - Britain first to commit to UN force

BRITAIN WILL today sign an agreement with the United Nations that will make it the first permanent member of the Security Council to put troops - up to 8,000 in all - on permanent stand-by for UN peacekeeping operations.

The memorandum of understanding will be signed in New York by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, British ambassador to the UN. Earlier, Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, will confirm the UK commitment at a meeting in London with Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General.

Although not directly inspired by the model of Kosovo, where Nato had intervened to impose a peace, the initiative reflects the changing pattern of modern conflict, as major Western nations increasingly reconfigure their armed forces for use in long-distance peacekeeping missions rather than to protect themselves against aggression.

This new post-Cold War doctrine was already evident in the Government's Strategic Defence Review last year.

The British unit, whose strength could be the equivalent of a brigade of between 6,000-8,000 men, will draw heavily on logistics, command and control, engineering and communications: "Just the sort of specialist skills the UN needs," Mr Cook said last night.

The Foreign Secretary denied the move would lead to any increase in defence spending, or that it would overstretch Britain's military resources. After six months, he pointed out, the UK will be winding down its 13,000-strong force in Kosovo, as K-For is gradually replaced by a more permanent multinational force.

He stressed, too, that Britain would still retain the right to turn down any requests from the UN, and insisted that the initiative did not mark the first step towards some form of standing UN army.

None the less, the move is a departure from existing practice, whereby UN peacekeeping operations are put together on an ad hoc basis, resulting in delays that on occasions have proved disastrous. "If such a mechanism had been in operation, we might just have been able to prevent the genocide in Rwanda," Mr Cook said.

Britain's stand-by force could be in action within days, or a few weeks at most.