United Nations, Sep 8 (IANS): Zero-tolerance policy must be maintained against sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers, a Chinese envoy to the United Nations (UN) has said.

"All sides should safeguard the reputation of the UN and ensure the healthy development of peacekeeping activities," Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, as saying on Wednesday in a General Assembly meeting.

Wu said the UN peacekeepers deployed to a mission must maintain ethical conduct, strictly abide by laws and disciplines and respect the local community.

He called on the troop-contributing countries (TCCs) of the UN peacekeeping missions to strengthen disciplines and accountability and called for the implementation of an integrated approach to deal with the issue.

"Peacekeeping is a common cause of all member states, which plays an important role in safeguarding national and regional peace and security," said Wu, urging the international community to affirm the contributions made by TCCs as well as the peacekeepers, jointly maintain the good reputation of peacekeeping and support this cause.

A total of 99 allegations of sexual exploitation by UN personnel were reported in 2015, with 69 of the cases in countries where peacekeeping operations are deployed, according to a UN report released in February 2016.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in March this year to tackle the problem. It requested the UN Secretary-General to replace all military and police unit of a troop or police contributing country in UN peacekeeping operations if the country has not taken appropriate actions to investigate their personnel or hold perpetrators accountable.