BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Belgium said on Wednesday it expected the European Union would agree to send a military force to Congo to assist U.N. peacekeepers, and Belgium itself could provide up to 500 troops. "I think that at a certain point Europe will send a mission," Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht told a parliamentary committee, Belgian news agency Belga reported. Belgium could provide 400-500 soldiers for such an EU force provided the necessary budget funds were released, Defence Minister Pieter De Crem told the same hearing. De Gucht has been trying to encourage the EU to respond to a United Nations call for an EU "bridging force" to reinforce the 17,000-strong U.N. mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony. EU ministers discussed the issue on Monday but were divided and took no decision. But they asked EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to prepare a response to the call from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. De Gucht said foreign ministers would discuss the issue again on Thursday night on the sidelines of an EU summit. The U.N. force has been unable to contain a surge in fighting in eastern Congo between the forces of renegade General Laurent Nkunda and pro-government militias. An estimated 250,000 people have been displaced by the violence in recent weeks. On Tuesday, France ruled out sending combat troops to Congo because the conflict zone is too close to Rwanda, a country with which it has extremely tense relations because of mutual accusations about the 1994 Rwandan genocide. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it would be a "moral abdication" for the EU not to respond and did not exclude non-combat participation in an EU force. The U.N.'s Ban said last on Friday a bridging force was needed as it could take up to six months for the United Nations to deploy 3,000 more peacekeepers in Congo. Kouchner, whose country hold the EU presidency, said he expected the EU response to Ban to be ready in time for the summit.
RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2008 The wreckage of the Hewa Bora Airways passenger jet burns at its crash site in Goma, capital of Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern North Kivu ...
