UNITED NATIONS: The UN peacekeeping chief said Wednesday he hopes a National Reconciliation Forum taking place next week can end hostilities in conflict-torn Central African Republic.

Herve Ladsous told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council that he attended a meeting of the International Contact Group on CAR in Addis Ababa on July 7 which decided on a roadmap to try to end the violence.

Thousands have been killed in the country, which is about the size of Texas, since a political crisis deepened in December and ignited unprecedented violence between Christian and Muslim communities. While the situation in the capital, Bangui, has calmed down, with almost all Muslims fleeing to the north, sectarian violence has continued in the provinces.

Ladsous said the first step in the roadmap is convening the forum in the Republic of Congo’s capital, Brazzaville, starting on July 21.

“The hope is that it can be decided that hostilities cease and that weapons are laid down,” Ladsous said, “and that would pave the way for a two-stage process of talks on national reconciliation that would take place probably in Central African Republic itself.”

He said there was “a very strong commitment” by the Contact Group “to make it happen.”

Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesson, the Economic Community of Central Africa States’ mediator for the crisis, has been joined by mediators from the UN and African Union to prepare for the Brazzaville meeting, he said.

Ladsous also briefed the Security Council on plans for a UN force to take over peacekeeping from 5,000 African Union soldiers in Central African Republic on Sept. 15.

The council authorized a force of 10,000 troops and 1,800 police, and many of the African troops will become part of it.