Southern African leaders will launch a peacekeeping brigade in Zambia on Friday as part of a planned African standby force, South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Wednesday.

The South-Africa based peacekeeping brigade, part of an Africa-wide effort to form an operational standby force by 2010, will be expected to rapidly deploy in areas for a limited duration, with a mandate from the United Nations, the African Union or the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Pahad said the force would be launched on Friday at a summit of southern African leaders in Lusaka.

"This is a very important development that will allow us to more effectively deal with conflict resolution within SADC and the African continent as a whole," Pahad told a news conference.

The brigade, formed by the member states of the SADC, will assist in observation and peace missions across the continent.