KATHMANDU, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The Royal Nepal Army is ready to dispatch 800 troops to join the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the African country of Burundi, a high-ranking Nepali army official said.

    "We have already got the confirmation, and we are preparing forthe mission," The Kathmandu Post newspaper on Monday quoted the official as saying.

    "Our force will be about 800-member strong, and it will be senton the mission very soon," he said on condition of anonymity.

    Last Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a recommendation from Secretary-General Kofi Annan of a 5,650-strongUN force takeover from African Union peacekeepers to help end the 10-year civil war in Burundi, which has claimed 250,000 lives so far.

    Besides Nepali soldiers, other troops on the mission will be from Pakistan and Mozambique.

    Nepal has dispatched about 2,000 peacekeeping soldiers and observers in such conflict hotspots as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Israel, Kosov and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Enditem