By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - It may take up to half a year for the United Nations to deploy 3,000 new peacekeepers in eastern Congo, which is why it would help to have a bridging force from the European Union, the U.N. chief said on Friday.

"Practically speaking, it would take a long time -- the best scenario would be at least four months for United Nations additional peacekeeping forces who could be deployed," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters.

"It would take four to six months," he added.

He said the considerable lag in deploying reinforcements was why he had asked the European Union to consider sending a temporary "bridging force" until the U.N. troops arrive.

In response to renewed fighting in eastern Congo, the U.N. Security Council last month approved a temporary increase in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, to 20,000. It is already the largest U.N. force in the world.

Diplomats from European Union member states say they are still discussing the possibility of sending EU troops to help secure the delivery of humanitarian aid in Congo until MONUC's 3,000 reinforcements arrive.

But prospects for an EU mission grew dimmer on Tuesday after Karel De Gucht, the foreign minister of Congo's former colonial ruler, Belgium, said that talks with European counterparts in Brussels had left him with the impression there was little appetite for such a mission.

"No country is willing to take a lead," he said. "Secondly, most of the countries say they are overstretched, firstly in Afghanistan but also in Iraq, so they have no troops ... available."

Renegade Congolese Tutsi Gen. Laurent Nkunda declared a cease-fire after marching to the gates of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, in late October. His men are still battling various pro-government militias roaming the east, which is rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and tin.

Some 250,000 people have been displaced by the violence, which the United Nations says has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe.

EU soldiers intervened in Congo in 2003 to halt militia violence in northeast Ituri district that grew out of a broader 1998-2003 war, and to protect successful 2006 elections that returned President Joseph Kabila to office.

This time, the EU has limited its offers to humanitarian aid, diplomatic backing for peace efforts and backing for MONUC via offers of equipment, intelligence and logistics. (Editing by Peter Cooney)

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