China will send the fifth contingent of peacekeeping police to Kosovo in early March, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said in Beijing on Wednesday.

The peacekeeping police arrived in Beijing on Monday for three weeks of intensive training, an official with MPS said.

The 18 recruits were chosen from among 70,000 police in the southwest province of Sichuan, based on test scores in English, driving, shooting and physical condition.

The police, 15 male and three female, are aged 29 years on average. Two of them previously served as peacekeepers in Kosovo and Liberia, according to the official.

The police will replace the fourth contingent of peacekeepers and carry out criminal investigations and traffic policing. They will also protect witnesses and important people.

The fourth contingent of Chinese peacekeepers arrived in Kosovo on Oct. 28, 2006 and they were given UN peacekeeping medals in May 2007. China has been involved in the peacekeeping mission since April 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2008)