France, Denmark and Indonesia pledged to contribute to a United Nations mission to Darfur, Sudan, in an attempt to end the conflict between pro-government militias and rebels.

The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people in the last four years.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to authorise the deployment of up to 26,000 peacekeepers to protect civilians in western Sudan on Tuesday.

If fully deployed, the hybrid force of UN and African Union police and military units would be the world's largest peacekeeping force, draw upon a maximum of 19,555 military troops and 6,432, civilian police.

The Tuesday resolution will create the world's largest peacekeeping operation, costing about USD 2.3 Bin its first year and drawing on military and police forces from the African Union and the UN, a UN spokeswoman said.

The resolution states that the UN will have the force's headquarters in place by October. UN peacekeepers are scheduled to take command of the region from a 7,000-member African Union force by December 31, but the bulk of the units are not expected to arrive until 2008.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to member states to contribute troops quickly in order to protect civilians in Darfur. He described the mission as "historic and unprecedented".

Though the resolution was toned down after objections from the Sudanese Government, it will allow the peacekeeping troops to use force to prevent attacks on themselves, to protect civilians and aid workers, and to help put a peace agreement in place.

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