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UNITED NATIONS, April 11-- A Chinese envoy on Thursday asked for more efforts from the international community to boost women's participation in peacekeeping. Efforts must be made to create conditions for women's wider participation in peacekeeping, Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council. The international community should strengthen communication to increase support for women's participation in peacekeeping. A favorable environment should be created for women's participation in terms of training, deployment and field operations, he told the council in an open debate on women in peacekeeping. Ma asked for attention to the national conditions of troop-contributing countries in efforts to gradually increase women's participation in peacekeeping. Such efforts can start on trial basis before they become general practice, said Ma. Expanding women's participation in peacekeeping requires concerted efforts of all parties, he said. Developed countries should increase their participation in UN peacekeeping and demonstrate their support for women's participation with real action. The UN Secretariat should increase cooperation with troop-contributing countries, draw up targeted training plans to help them with capacity building, said the Chinese ambassador. The main goal of UN peacekeeping is to promote the political settlement of conflicts and to achieve peace and stability in the mission areas. All activities must serve this purpose, said Ma. | 
