71.   Military aspects of the peace plan provide for the quartering of the troops under UN supervision and the formation of a new joint national defence force.

72.   Military observers say UNITA has failed to turn over large quantities of heavy weaponry it is holding, ahead of the formation of a new joint national defence force.

73.   On Thursday, Chirac offered the French nuclear deterrent to the European Union for a future EU defence force, apparently hoping to defuse criticism of the tests.

74.   One member of the South African defence force, a finance clerk, has so far been killed in Burundi.

75.   Over the past six months, Bestbier said, the defence force has trained several infantry and other units, including medical teams, for peacekeeping tasks.

76.   Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Paias Wingti has completed a surprise visit to the rebel-dominated island province of Bougainville amid worsening revolt by his own defence forces.

77.   Pena is to become deputy commander of the joint defence force.

78.   Police suspected defence force members were involved in the arms deals and further arrests were expected, he added.

79.   Regional navies will spend billions of dollars on new warships, submarines and other naval equipment as they modernise their defence forces, conference organisers said.

80.   Separatist rebels on the Papua New Guinean island of Bougainville welcomed the prospect of defence forces launching an all-out war on them, the PNG Post-Courier reported Thursday.