New York - United Nations officials on Monday rejected charges of incompetence by UN peacekeepers deployed at some northern and eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting has created fresh humanitarian crisis.

Some media reports in Europe and The New York Times criticized the 17,000-strong UN Mission in Congo, known as MONUC, of being powerless in the face of intensified attacks by armed rebels against government troops.

Rome - More than 120 countries party to the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous substances have agreed to add the pesticide tributyltin to a global trade "watch list," a United Nations agency said Monday.

Tributyltin (TBT) compounds are pesticides used in antifouling paints for ship hulls and are toxic to fish, molluscs and other aquatic organisms. The International Maritime Organization has moved to ban the use of antifouling paints containing TBT compounds.

Nairobi/Goma - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in the violence-torn Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday evening, at the same time playing down prospects of British troops being sent to the country to back up UN peacekeepers.

Miliband arrived along with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, according to a report by the London-based Press Association, in a bid to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the east of the country.

Beirut - The head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah's international relations department Saturday accused Terje Roed- Larsen, UN Special Representative for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, of siding with Israel against Lebanon.

Nawaf Mousawi charged that Roed-Larsen's "background and goals are well known, that he works to please the Israeli side by carrying their demands and presenting them as though they were requests urged by the international community

Dhaka - Dhaka on Saturday made a formal request to the United Nations for assistance to rescue two Bangladeshi development workers abducted in war-torn Afghanistan last month.

"We have sought assistance from the United Nations to rescue abducted Bangladeshi workers," the foreign affairs adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, told reporters after the talks with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.