(UNITED NATIONS) - The European Union plans to send around 1,000 troops to the Central African Republic to help restore order, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday.

Earlier estimates had the bloc sending about 500 troops. "We have more than 500 troops," Ashton told reporters after a UN Security Council meeting, adding that the European Union was "looking at double that number."

"I trust that the force will be on the ground very, very soon," she said.

European diplomats said the force could be deployed to Bangui as early as next month. EU foreign ministers cleared the nine-month mission earlier this week.

Few European countries have so far publicly committed to sending troops to the Central African Republic.

The CAR has been descending into chaos since a coup by the Seleka rebel coalition a year ago installed the first Muslim president in the majority Christian nation. He has since stepped down.

Killings and pillaging by former Seleka rebels led to the formation of mostly Christian "anti-balaka" militias, whose attacks have fuelled an exodus of Muslims over the past several weeks.

International troops have so far failed to quell the violence in the resource-rich but poor country.