U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday tapped a French diplomat to become the world body’s newest peacekeeping chief.

Alain Le Roy, who has been helping French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s administration bolster its ties with North Africa and has extensive experience in the Balkans, succeeds Jean-Marie Guehenno.

The decision keeps the high-profile job of U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations within France’s portfolio. France considers its support for peacekeeping and human rights among its top priorities.

Le Roy, 55, takes over a department facing the challenge of running some 20 peacekeeping operations with more than 100,000 personnel _ a roughly tenfold increase from the start of the 1990s.

The U.N. marked 60 years of peacekeeping operations in May, with Guehenno cautioning that the famous “blue helmets” may be stretched too thin. The U.N. relies on member nations to contribute troops, police and gear.

Guehenno also has at times disagreed with the U.N. Security Council on the wisdom of sending peacekeeping missions into war zones where peace is elusive.

France pays 7 percent of the peacekeeping department’s $7.5 billion budget and contributes nearly 2,000 troops. That makes it the fifth-biggest financial contributor, behind the 26 percent paid by the U.S., 17 percent by Japan, 9 percent by Germany and 8 percent by Britain.

France is the 10th-biggest troop contributor, far behind the more than 10,000 contributed by Pakistan and more than 9,000 each from Bangladesh and India.