UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that the African summit held in Algiers this month showed signs of a “qualitative change in Africa” toward peace and democracy.

Speaking here Tuesday, Annan particularly noted the progress in resolving three major regional conflicts and to the attendance at the Algiers summit by two newly-elected leaders, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.

The Algiers summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), attended by 46 government heads throughout the region, strongly criticised ” leaders who want to cling to power” and international terrorism.

According to Annan, the most positive development was the OAU’s endorsement of a cease fire in the fighting between government forces and rebels in Sierra Leone, among the various factions fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); and between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

“While these agreements are important, they are nevertheless very fragile,” Annan told the UN Security Council. “It is imperative for the Security Council and the international community as a whole to support them strongly, both politically and materially.”

Annan said he was sending a small team of experts to Algiers this week to join an OAU delegation that has been assisting Ethiopia and Eritrea in working out plans to end their year-long border war. UN officials were working with their OAU counterparts to prepare for a peacekeeping mission in the border between the two countries, he said.

Yet despite Annan’s hopes that several major regional conflicts may be resolved soon, Security Council members – notably the United States – remained ambivalent about dispatching large-scale UN operations to Africa.

UN sources told IPS that the United States was adamant that no more than 5,000 UN peace keepers could be deployed in the Congo to monitor the cease-fire agreement agreed to earlier this month.

Britain has suggested dispatching some 15,000 troops, while UN troop estimates range as high as 35,000 soldiers. UN officials clearly want a mission that will be effective, after complaints that several recent African ventures were understaffed.

Washington has been wary of African peace-keeping operations ever since an ill-fated attempt by the United nations to impose peace among warring factions in Somalia.

After the death of 18 US soldiers in an independent operation in October 1993, President Bill Clinton drafted a directive committing the United States to seek several guidelines – including a limited mandate and definitive date for withdrawal – before it would support any UN mission.

As a result, the United Nations remains unsure of how much support it can give to the peace processes unfolding in Africa.

“I hesitate to give you any figure,” Annan told reporters about troop estimates for the Congo. “The size of the force will depend on the mandate we have been given… The force will have to be credible, will have to be competent, and will have to have the right force structure.”

Some UN officials said privately that, even if the United Nations handled only a minimal number of tasks in the Congo, it would need at least 15,000 troops to maintain peace in the vast eastern region of the country.

That area, which boasts major diamond and mineral concessions, has been the site of fighting between the government of President Laurent Kabila and rebels supported by Uganda and Rwanda.

Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have all reportedly fought on the side of the rebels, while Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad have all fought at times with government troops.

Despite the cease-fire signed in Lusaka, Zambia, the conflict has not yet ended. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata noted Monday that thousands of Congolese have fled fresh fighting and gone to the neighbouring Central African Republic.

“Visiting the country last month, I was shocked by the deteriorating living conditions of the Congolese population at large,” Ogata said. “The informal economy, once the backbone of this resilient country, has all but collapsed. Poverty is rampant, almost 150,000 refugees have fled, and there are countless internally displaced people.”

Ogata also drew attention to the plight of half-a-million refugees from Sierra Leone who were unable to return to their homes, despite the Jul. 8 agreement halting the civil war between the government and rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

She told the Security Council Monday that only 60 percent of her office’s 137 million-dollar budget for Africa had been funded so far this year. In contrast, the UN refugee programme for Kosovo had received commitments of 265 million dollars, including 50 million dollars from the United States alone.

“There is a perception of disparity in the assistance given,” Ogata said.