UN peacekeepers said last week that the first batch of the 20,000-strong UN mission may withdraw by the end of June in the west of the country as requested by President Joseph Kabila to mark the 50th anniversary of independence.

"It would not be a good idea for that to occur too quickly," General William Ward, the head of the US Africa Command, said of a pullout of troops.

Ward told a US Senate hearing that the western part of the vast nation was the "most stable" and "would probably be least affected with the withdrawal of United Nations forces."

"But, clearly, in the eastern part of the country where the majority of the things occur against the people ... the removal of United Nations forces would have a detrimental effect on those overall conditions," Ward said.

The UN mission "has clearly been a force for good," Ward said. "Any place where those forces are reduced would have, I believe, a negative effect."

The UN force, whose mandate is to be renewed in May, has been deployed in DRC since 1999 and backs government troops in the country's east where they are battling several armed groups, including Hutu rebels from neighboring Rwanda.

It is tasked with protecting civilians in the underdeveloped country where more than 1.25 million people have been uprooted or displaced by violence in the east.

The United States is not part of the UN force but has launched a project to train a battalion of the DRC's military, which has been widely accused of human rights abuses including rape.

Ward said the United States hoped the battalion would "serve as a model for what professional behavior is" and influence other parts of the nation's military.

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