The last 99 soldiers of the Chinese peacekeeping force to the Democratic Republic of Congo returned to Beijing Thursday after finishing their first tour.  

The second team, consisting of 218 soldiers, left Beijing on Dec. 3.

China sent its first team, a 175-member engineers company and a 43-member medical company, to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April this year.

In the eight-month peacekeeping operations, Chinese soldiers had overcome difficulties and fulfilled their task, said the circular order signed by Liang Guanglie, chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

China is ready to get more involved in the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2003)