UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously approved the deployment of more than 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers for war-divided Ivory Coast.

The United States will not contribute any troops to the force, but Congress must approve the request because Washington pays 27 percent of U.N. peacekeeping costs.

Last month, France circulated a draft resolution calling for a 6,240-strong U.N. force and 150 civilian police to replace the 1,000 West African troops and 150 police now in the former French colony.

More than 4,000 French troops trying to help keep the peace will remain in the country but will not be part of the U.N. force.

Ivory Coast for decades was West Africa’s most stable and prosperous country.

It remains the world’s largest cocoa producer, but a 1999 coup has ushered in political, regional, ethnic and religious tensions and violence.

The country has been split between rebel north and government south since a rebellion erupted in September 2002 after a failed coup.

The 15-member Security Council has called on the parties to implement the peace agreement brokered in France a year ago that ended major fighting.

The United States initially expressed reservations about the size of the proposed force, but U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte said last week that Washington agreed to the deployment.