THE United States supports the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo but does not plan to provide troops, says Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell told the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee the United States supports the 1999 Lusaka peace accords for the war-ravaged central African country. The accords call for a pullback by all sides in the Congolese civil war and the creation of a UN peacekeeping force. A total of 1 562 soldiers from Uruguay, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia will take up positions in six cities starting at the end of March, under the agreement, which was signed but never implemented. – AFP