On December 22nd the UN Security Council extended the mandate of Amisom until September 30th and requested the AU to increase Amisom's strength from the current level of 8,000 troops to a maximum of 12,000. Help with the long-running problems of financing the mission came two days later, when the AU's Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ramtane Lamamra, and China's ambassador in Ethiopia, Gu Xiaojie, signed an agreement providing Chinese aid to Amisom amounting to Rmb30m (more than US$4m), which will be used to supply equipment. This was in addition to a donation by the Chinese government to Amisom of US$1.3m made through Mr Xiaojie in late November, but financing Amisom was still a serious problem in late January, when the UN Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, told a meeting of the Joint Security Committee of Somali officials and interested partners in Djibouti that the UN trust fund established to pay both Amisom and TFG soldiers was "at its lowest" level. This is a particularly pressing matter, as Amisom soldiers' monthly pay was increased by 37% to US$1,208 at the start of 2011 in a bid to boost morale.