Britain may need to send troops to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo if diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the crisis fail, a Foreign Office minister has warned.
Lord Malloch-Brown said that the UK and other European powers could not stand back if the fighting between government and rebel forces erupted again.
His comments came as Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner were embarking on a joint mission to the region to try to bring the warring parties together.
Lord Malloch-Brown said that while the priority was to find a diplomatic solution, contingency plans were being drawn up for the deployment of an EU force to bolster United Nations peacekeepers.
"We have certainly got to have it as an option which is developed and on the table if we need it," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"The first line of call on this should be the deployment of the UN's own troops from elsewhere in the country.
"But we have got to have plans. If everything else fails we cannot stand back and watch violence erupt.
"Britain is currently the so-called standby country which would indeed need to contribute."
Lord Malloch-Brown stressed that the deployment of EU troops was a last option if all else failed.
Nevertheless his comments are likely to alarm British commanders at time when the Army is stretched fighting on two fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
