NAIROBI, July 11, 2008 (AFP) - The UN Security Council has lifted an arms embargo on Rwanda, around 13 years since it was imposed after the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people, a statement said Friday.

The council lifted the embargo on Thursday and dissolved a committee tasked with monitoring compliance with the sanctions, it added.

'The council voted unanimously to end the prohibition on the supply of arms and weapons for use in Rwanda, contained in resolution 1011 (1995),' the statement said.

It stressed the need for states in the region to ensure that arms and related material delivered to them were not diverted to or used by illegal armed groups.

An estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were massacred in Rwanda after the shooting down of a plane carrying former Rwandan leader Juvenal Habyarimana Habyarimana on April 6, 1994.