The 15-member Council voted unanimously to establish the 70-member team, which will work with Nigerian-led West African peacekeepers to help demobilise remnants of the former ruling junta and support the restored elected government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

The resolution condemns the continued violence by the former junta, calls on them to disarm and expresses the Council's serious concern about reports of the flow of arms across the border in violation of UN resolutions.

The Nigerian-led peacekeepers ousted the military junta of Lt Col Johnny Paul Koroma in February and restored the elected government of Kabbah, who had been toppled in a coup last year by Koroma.

In the past several months, hundreds of villagers have been killed and more than 1,000mutilated by former junta troops hiding out in the countryside, the Red Cross reported last month.

The ray of hope that we all felt when President Kabbah and his government returned to Freetown in March was quickly overshadowed by the terrible atrocities committed by fleeing junta and rebel forces,'' said America's UN Ambassador, Bill Richardson.

The United States will pledge $55 million in humanitarian aid for refugees in Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries, he said.

The UN team will have an initial six-month mandate, through January 13, and will be accompanied by a medical unit and other military observers.

France's UN Ambassador, Alain Dejammet, noted that the team must work with the Nigerian peacekeepers, who have the primary mission in the country.

Even after being deposed, these former junta members have refused to lay down their arms and are committing unspeakable atrocities in the North and East of the country,'' said Kenya's UN Ambassador Njuguna Mahugu. These revenge killings, with nomilitary or strategic value, have got to stop.''

The Security Council in June lifted an arms embargo on Sierra Leone, the last remaining sanction from a series of penalties imposed in October.

But the Council ordered all UN member states to ensure that weapon shipments to Sierra Leone pass exclusively through areas under the control of the civilian government and its Nigerian allies.

The neighbouring states have responsibility for implementing that embargo,'' Richardson said.

Member states have also been asked to prevent senior junta figures and their families from entering their territory.