This is a remarkable expression of international solidarity and it is just one example among 15 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

UN: Secretary-General

And the reputation of UN peacekeeping operations around the world has been sullied as some of the foreign troops assigned to them have turned into rape squads and sex-traffickers.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Globotaxes

Back in January in Bangladesh, its suspension of its election-observer mission and warning that supporting a rigged poll might jeopardise the army's involvement in UN peacekeeping operations played a large part in the cancellation of the vote.

ECONOMIST: Why the UN cannot stay out of domestic politics

"I think the next few days are still indeed quite dangerous, " said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the French diplomat who heads the UN's peacekeeping operations.

BBC: NEWS | Middle East | Challenges facing Lebanon peace force

Mr Annan's spokesman, Ahmed Fawzi, said on Tuesday that an advance team from the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) would arrive in Damascus "in the next 48 hours" to discuss the deployment of international monitors.

BBC: Bashar al-Assad cannot survive for long, his uncle says

In recent months, Eritrea has placed increasingly tight restrictions on the operations of the UN peacekeeping force deployed along the border and ordered Western UN staff to withdraw.

BBC: NEWS | Africa | Eritrea broke law in border war

The purposes towards which such funds might be applied include development assistance, humanitarian relief, peacekeeping operations, raising and maintaining a UN army and underwriting for the international institutions that will be charged with administering these funds.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Clinton's soak the rich Americans

Fourth, African nations are essential contributors both to intra-African military operations that help stabilize the African continent and also to many key UN multilateral peacekeeping missions.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: AFRICOM proceeds apace

In 2003 Nato took its operations outside Europe for the first time when it assumed strategic command of the UN-mandated peacekeeping force in and immediately around the Afghan capital, Kabul.

BBC: Profile: Nato