United Nations - The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, yesterday recommended the establishment of a 6,000-strong UN peacekeeping force to help to implement a July accord aimed at ending an eight-year civil war in Sierra Leone.
Mr Annan said he hoped the force would be able to incorporate a substantial number of troops from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), whose own 12,000-member Nigerian-led military observer group, ECOMOG, is being phased out after serving in Sierra Leone for 2 1/2 years.