The 15-member U.N. Security Council decided Monday to expand the existing U.N. Mission in DRC (MONUC) from the current 8,700 troops to 10,800, and to give its peacekeepers the authority to use ''all necessary means'', including military force, to end the killings in the towns of Ituri and Kivu in eastern DRC.
The new mandate ends next July.
''I congratulate the Security Council on unanimously adopting the resolution giving MONUC the strong mandate it needs to fulfil its difficult mission in DRC, especially in the volatile east,'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters.
The expanded force will include troops from South Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. ''They have already been lined up to go to eastern DRC,'' Annan said.
Last month, the Security Council authorised a 1,200-strong intervention force, led by France, to initially stem the violence in the region. But it has been criticised as ineffective.
Last week, international humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) expressed concern over the amount of aid reaching civilians in Bunia and the surrounding areas, where recent fighting has displaced thousands of civilians.
In a report titled 'Ituri: Unkept Promises? A Pretence of Protection and Inadequate Assistance', MSF said that despite the presence of the European force, only a small part of the town of Bunia was secure.
''Murders and intimidation continue in the night,'' the report said. ''Portraying Bunia as a secure town is not true.''
MONUC's new mandate also gives peacekeepers the authority to take all ''necessary means'' to protect U.N. personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, as well as civilians and humanitarian workers ''under imminent threat of physical violence''.
One expert said Monday that a peacekeeping force in the DRC must have sufficient authority to both defend itself, and more importantly, to help disarm combatants, thereby protecting the civilian population.
The 53-member African Union (AU) must step forward and play an integral role in resolving the DRC crisis, said Bill Fletcher Jr, president of Washington-based TransAfrica Forum.
''The South African government has played a critical role, but this needs to be expanded to the AU (African Union) as a whole,'' Fletcher said in an interview. ''One important step would be the use of African troops in the DRC rather than European,'' he added.
Although MONUC has peacekeepers from about 46 countries, most from developing nations, it also includes troops from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Britain, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
The French-led European force consists of troops mostly from the 15-member European Union (EU).
''We're lucky to get the multinational force to go in to try and contain the situation and stop the killings, and allow humanitarian assistance to go through,'' said Annan on Monday.
''But now, with this (Security Council) resolution, we will be able to send in an expanded force into Ituri just before the multinational force withdraws,'' he added.
The mandate of the European force in DRC ends Aug. 31.
Last month, the U.N. budget committee earmarked about 582 million dollars for MONUC -- the largest for any single U.N. peacekeeping mission -- for 2003-2004.
The civil war in DRC has involved several neighbouring countries, including Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Burundi and Zimbabwe.
On Monday, the Security Council also placed a new arms embargo against all foreign and Congolese armed groups in the east of the country, which has been the scene of intense ethnic killings.
Recent clashes between Lendu and Hema tribal factions in Bunia in north-eastern DRC further sparked the much larger conflict in eastern DRC.
Last month, Annan condemned the killings of two U.N. military observers from Jordan and Malawi, along with two local Red Cross workers. The killings in DRC were ''appalling and shocking acts,'' he said.
Sergio Vieria de Mello, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, expressed ''grave concern'' over reports of indiscriminate killings in Bunia, and in particular, at reports that civilians were being killed because of their ethnicity.