The Security Council voted unanimously to boost by about 3,000 troops what is already the largest deployment in the world of UN military personnel, as government forces battle rebel fighters, forcing thousands to flee.

The council agreed to boost the 17,000-strong mission known by the acronym MONUC by "up to 2,785 military personnel, and the strength of its formed police unit by up to 300 personnel."

The temporary reinforcement begins immediately and will last until the end of December, but could be renewed at the same time as the mandate of the MONUC mission which also expires then.

The resolution was drawn up by France and co-sponsored by several nations.

It stressed that the temporary increase was to enable "MONUC to reinforce its capacity to protect civilians, to reconfigure its structure and forces and to optimize their deployment."

It further "underscores the importance of MONUC implementing its mandate in full, including through robust rules of engagement."

MONUC is the UN's largest mission currently deployed in the world and was first set up in 2001.

French ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert told reporters that the Security Council decided to act due to deteriorating conditions on the ground.

"The situation is sufficiently serious -- violations of the cease-fire continue, unfortunate acts of violence go on, the humanitarian situation for the displaced is still bad -- so it was necessary to accompany the political process, which we support, by reinforcing the military element," he said.

About 5,000 UN peacekeepers are based in eastern Nord-Kivu province where fierce fighting flared again at the end of August.

The fighting has pitted government troops against the rebel forces of leader Laurent Nkunda.

Nkunda says he is defending local Tutsis against the Interahamwe, a Rwandan Hutu militia, some of whom have been implicated in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in neighboring Rwanda.

He has threatened to topple DR Congo President Laurent Kabila's government unless he is granted face-to-face negotiations with the president.

And the situation on the ground has become increasingly complicated. Government forces clashed Monday in the town of Kirumba with the Mai-Mai, usually an ally, and at least two people were killed.

The violence in the country, which was devastated by a five-year civil war at the turn of the decade, has caused yet more suffering for the local population.

The UN refugee agency reported that 2,000 refugees had crossed the border into Uganda on Tuesday alone, bringing the total number of arrivals since August to more than 14,500.

The US-based World Vision charity said its staff operating a clinic in the rebel-held town of Rwanguba were now treating up to 10 malnourished children each day, from an average of one or two before the conflict.

The UN's representative in the country, Alan Doss, this week wrote a letter to Nkunda detailing "odious crimes" committed by forces under his control, according to a copy obtained by AFP Thursday.

Doss alleged that civilians had been kidnapped and murdered and said he was "deeply concerned by what has been happening in Kiwanja since it was taken by the CNDP," Nkunda's rebels, at the end of October.

Doss had asked at the beginning of October for more forces to be deployed to the country, saying the UN peacekeepers were overwhelmed.

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