By Daniel Bases

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted on Friday to extend its peace-building mission in Sierra Leone nine months to maintain a presence and help prepare for local elections set for June 2008.

The mineral-rich West African nation suffered through a decade of civil war that cost an estimated 50,000 lives between 1991 and 2002. U.N. peacekeeping troops left the country in 2005.

The council said it would ask U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for a 20-percent reduction in staff by March 31 and a termination of the mission by Sept. 30, 2008.

The resolution, drafted by Britain, calls for "a continued mission at 80 percent of the current strength until 30 June 2008."

The peace-building mission, known as UNIOSIL (United Nations Integrated Office in Sierra Leone), has a civilian staff of 298.

In place of the UNIOSIL office, the United Nations is proposing a largely nonmilitary office to continue the peace-building process, generate international donor support and promote national reconciliation and constitutional reform.

The situation in Sierra Leone has remained stable but fragile, and the country faces a severe financial crisis as a result of limited state revenues, Ban said in a report to the Security Council on Dec. 4.

Sierra Leone, a former British colony of 5.7 million people that won independence in 1961, elected Ernest Bai Koroma, a 54-year-old former insurance executive, as president in September after a tense election run-off. (Editing by Xavier Briand)

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