Brussels, 04/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Ireland and Sweden (in addition to Belgium, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom) have shown their interest in taking part in the EU force to be deployed in support of the United Nations mission in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MONUC, during the election period. This was announced to the press on Tuesday by EU Special Representative for the African Great Lakes Region, Aldo Ajello, who added that “other Member States may take a stance in coming days”. As set out in the operations concept adopted by the Council on 23 March (EUROPE 9154), this force will be composed of an advanced element in Kinshasa of around 400-500 military and a standby force. The standby force will be located “in the region” near DRC and deployable within 24 hours, a senior EU officer said, specifying the three tasks entrusted to the mission: - provide support to MONUC, make the Kinshasa airport secure and, where necessary, carry out the evacuation of persons there (mainly EU monitors on the ground). The Operations Headquarters will be in Potsdam, Germany, while the headquarters of the ground forces will be provided by France in Kinshasa, the officer said. Once joint action has been adopted (in principle on 10 April), the operations plan (OPPLAN) will be developed and the force generation conference will be launched. The mission is expected to last for four months and will be deployed “one or two weeks” before the elections as soon as the final date of the elections is known (the 18 June date having been cancelled).