A non-binding statement read out by Libya's UN delegate Ibrahim Dabbashi, whose country chairs the 15-member body this month, welcomed "the successful transfer of authority" last Sunday between the EU peacekeepers and the UN force known as MINURCAT.

EUFOR troops swapped their berets for ones worn by UN peacekeepers in the eastern Chadian town of Abeche Sunday, in a symbolic handover attended by senior officials and diplomats.

Some 5,200 peacekeepers from the UN's MINURCAT mission are now charged with protecting refugees from Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, as well as others fleeing a rebel insurgency in Chad and the northern CAR.

But roughly 2,000 members of the European force will remain for a few more months under the UN beret until African and Nepalese units arrive.

On Tuesday, council members commended the European Union's "successful deployment" of its force in central Africa, hailing "the support it has provided to UN activities ... and the contribution it has made to the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance and the security and stability in its area of operation."

Council members stressed the importance of "a further improvement of regional relations, in particular between Sudan and Chad.

They also renewed a demand that "all armed groups in Chad and the Central African Republic renounce violence and respect and implement" the relevant peace accords.

The council statement was agreed after closed-door consultations during which France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert highlighted the total impartiality with which the EU force conducted its mission of protecting civilians in Chad and CAR.

Ripert drew a parallel between the situation in eastern Chad, which he said was now reasonably secure, and "what is happening across the border in (strife-torn) Darfur, unfortunately."

"This shows once again the ability of the EU to develop a common foreign and defense policy and to intervene on the ground in Africa for the maintenance of peace and the settlement of conflicts," he said.

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Conakry (AFP) March 17, 2009
Guinea's self-proclaimed president Captain Moussa Dadis Camara proposed Monday to open up his military junta to civilians after a day of meetings with representatives of the international community and civil groupings.