EU ready to send aid to DR Congo

Kinshasa: The European Union is ready to send humanitarian aid to civilians fleeing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but is thinking over whether it will send troops, France's foreign minister said on Saturday.

Bernard Kouchner said France's proposal this week that the EU send up to 1,500 troops to support hard-pressed UN peacekeepers in Congo had been only a suggestion, which was being consulted with all EU members.

France holds the rotating EU presidency and Kouchner, accompanied by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, arrived in Congo's capital Kinshasa yesterday on a mission to try to secure peace in east of the country.

An offensive by Tutsi rebels loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda, and subsequent killings and looting by Congolese army troops, have driven tens of thousands of civilians from their homes in North Kivu province on the border with Rwanda.

After meeting Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa, Kouchner told reporters EU member states which met in Brussels on Friday to discuss the Congo situation were agreed on the idea of a European humanitarian operation for North Kivu.

"They've said it can certainly be done in humanitarian terms," he said, adding that the option of sending troops "must be studied".