Several thousand Rwandan troops entered DR Congo last week
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The UN mission to DR Congo (Monuc) says it will provide support to the joint DR Congo-Rwanda operation against Hutu rebels in the east of the country.
The UN force said it would provide transport for troops and medical assistance, but would not participate directly in the operation.
Several thousand Rwandan troops entered DR Congo last week and arrested Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda.
The joint operation is now advancing to flush out the ethnic Hutu FDLR rebels.
The presence of the Hutu fighters in eastern DR Congo lies at the heart of more than a decade of instability in the region.
Rwanda has twice invaded DR Congo, saying it was pursuing the rebels, some of whose leaders are accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Rebels leave camp
Meanwhile, a group of fighters from Gen Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) have left a military base, where they were supposed to start the process of joining the national army.
Diplomatic sources have told the BBC that the rebels want to know more about Gen Nkunda's arrest in Rwanda, as many of them oppose moves to extradite him to DR Congo.
The combatants are also asking about their conditions in the army, which correspondents say is notorious for treating its soldiers poorly.
The Congolese army says the integration process has been postponed but so far no date has been given.
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Our priority is to protect civilians and Monuc cannot stay on the sidelines of this operation
Lt Col Jean-Paul Dietrich
Monuc spokesman
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Gen Nkunda always said his own rebellion was necessary to protect his Congolese Tutsi community from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which is estimated to be more than 6,000-strong.
"Our priority is to protect civilians and Monuc cannot stay on the sidelines of this operation. We must be present," Monuc spokesman Lt Col Jean-Paul Dietrich said.
BBC world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says the UN's support lends international legitimacy to a bold initiative which could transform alliances across central Africa.
For the past decade and a half, Rwanda and DR Congo have either been directly engaged in war or accusing each other of backing proxy forces to fight border conflicts.
He says the decision by the Congolese government to invite in the army of its smaller but more powerful neighbour to help it deal with rebels changed all that.
On-and-off fighting involving the CNDP, FDLR, the army and pro-government militias has forced more than one million people in mineral-rich North Kivu to flee their homes since late 2006.
Our correspondent says if the new joint effort to disarm the Hutus works, it could herald an end to conflict in eastern DR Congo, the epicentre of wider wars across the continent.
The UN is now effectively betting that this will be the outcome, he adds.
But the military outcome is not assured and there is the potential for great danger, says our correspondent.
The situation is also politically risky for Congolese President Joseph Kabila, because most voters are deeply suspicious of Rwanda's intentions.
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