More than 50 countries have pledged 40,000 troops for United Nations peacekeeping at a US-led summit called to shore up missions under strain from the rise in global crises.
China scaled up its contribution, taking the lead in setting up an 8000-strong stand-by police force while Colombia made a first-time offer of as many as 5000 troops.
The pledges represent a major boost to UN peacekeeping, which relies on voluntary contributions from UN member states to run its 16 missions worldwide.
US President Barack Obama told leaders that peace operations were "experiencing unprecedented strains" and deployed in "more difficult and deadlier conflicts".
"We know that peace operations are not the solution to every problem," Obama told the summit held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
"But they do remain one of the world's most important tools to address armed conflict," he said.
The new contributions include helicopters, engineering units, field hospitals and bomb-detonating expertise that are desperately needed to bolster UN peace missions.
Obama opened the summit by announcing a tally of 30,000 new troops for peace missions, but after leaders took turns at the podium to announce contributions, the total reached 40,000.
A key player in peacekeeping in Africa, Rwanda offered two attack helicopters, two field hospitals, an all-female police unit and 1600 new troops.
Indonesia boosted its participation with training and 2700 new troops while India pledged 850 additional soldiers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron announced 70 troops for the UN-African Union mission in Somalia and up to 300 troops for South Sudan, where the UN mission is grappling with one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Pledges rolled in from smaller nations such as Armenia and Fiji and bigger players like Brazil, Turkey, Germany and Australia.
More than 125,000 troops and police from 124 countries serve in UN peace missions.
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