EU leaders to aid Kinshasa

European Union leaders committed themselves on Friday to the resumption of development aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel told reporters in Brussels. Heads of state and government, meeting in the royal castle of Laeken, near the centre of Brussels, agreed to sign a document in early January that would pave the way for aid flows to Kinshasa. Diplomats told IRIN the measure ended "the long and very tense discussions" between Belgium and France, which favoured the resumption of aid, and the European Commission and Britain which wanted aid withheld until the Inter-Congolese dialogue had truly commenced. The mechanism, which allows for disbursements from the European Development Fund, is called the Indicative National Programme. EU ministers of foreign affairs, meeting at the beginning of the week, were unable to arrive at an agreement. Central Africa was the last agenda item discussed Friday morning, in a session dedicated to the topics such as terrorism, Afghanistan, the Middle East and European defence and security policy. However, at the news conference Michel said: "The Summit agreed to consider Africa as an important matter of preoccupation for the EU.