The election process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is irreversible, and a successful transition from war to peace is the only way out for the African country, said a senior UN peacekeeper on Wednesday.

The commencement of the process of identifying and registering voters on Monday marked the beginning of an important phase in the country, said William Lacy Swing, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, known as MONUC.

The election, expected to be held before June 2006, will be the largest-scale vote held under the auspices of the UN, said Swing.

In the past five years, the UN has devoted US$3 billion to peacekeeping in the country and adopted more than 30 related resolutions. The UN Security Council has sent delegations there annually.

MONUC is the UN's largest peacekeeping mission in its history and accounts for 25 percent of its global peacekeeping expenditure, said Swing.

Peacepeekers from 51 countries have taken part in the mission in the DRC and 110 countries have been directly or indirectly involved in its peace-making process, he added.

The DRC parliament on Friday voted to extend the country's transitional period for six months amid organizational problems and continuing unrest in some regions.

Under the transitional constitution, the DRC will hold its first free and transparent election in 40 years on June 30 this year. The constitution also allows a six-month extension renewable once.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2005)