MONUC, which is now nearly 20,000 strong, would initially withdraw troops from the west, centre, and southeast of the vast central African nation, the sources said.

A MONUC spokesman said plans were in hand for the total dismantling of the world's largest peacekeeping mission, as requested by the Kinshasa government, but no official decision had been taken.

"The mission is obliged to do the planning if ever it's the decision" of the UN Security Council to order a total withdrawal of troops between June and the end of 2011, said Kevin Kennedy, head of MONUC's public information office.

"We're planning for every contingency," Kennedy said. "This does not mean that the decision has been taken, but we have to do it. To move all these troops with the logistics won't be done overnight."

In a second planned phase, 9,000 more soldiers would be withdrawn from the Orientale province in the northeast and the Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu provinces in the east. These regions are still unstable because of the presence of several armed groups, like the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Currently, 95 percent of MONUC troops are based in these troubled provinces, and MONUC is providing the Congolese army (FARDC) with logistical support for a latest offensive against the Rwandan rebels.

The United Nations has in the past come under fire from human rights groups for cooperating with the FARDC, because of widespread atrocities against the civilian population in the volatile areas.

But Amnesty International on March 5 warned that "withdrawing or reducing the peacekeeping force could have disastrous consequences" since MONUC "is the only force in the DRC capable of providing a measure of protection to the civilian population," which includes more than 1.5 million displaced people.

The third phase on the table is to withdraw the 9,000 remaining soldiers by the end of 2011, while envisaging the possibility of leaving a small force after that date. Kennedy also linked successive phases of withdrawal to the re-establishment of peace and security on the ground.

The United Nations initially envisaged a progressive withdrawal over three years, but Kinshasa asked for a complete pull-out during 2011, with the first departure of a contingent before June 30, when the DR Congo will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence.

The head of the US Africa Command, General William Ward, on March 9 told a US Senate hearing that western DR Congo 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 added. "Any place where those forces are reduced would have, I believe, a negative effect."

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.

A UN Security Council delegation is due to visit Kinshasa in mid-April to hold final talks with the authorities before renewing the mandate of MONUC, which expires on May 31 and will be extended for a year.

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