President promises to reopen border soon

Rwandan President Paul Kagame promised on Thursday to reopen his country’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo "as soon as possible", a measure that could signal the lessening of tension between the two countries.

"We should be looking at that in a few days to come," he told reporters in Kigali, the Rwandan capital.

The undertaking came a week after Kagame met Congolese President Joseph Kabila in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The meeting, hosted by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, was an effort to thaw the icy relations between Kigali and Kinshasa. Obasanjo is chairman of the newly created Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

Rwanda sealed its border in June after Kabila accused it of sending troops to back Congolese army dissidents fighting loyalist troops in the eastern town of Bukavu. Under a barrage of accusations, Rwanda said the frontier would remain closed until the UN and the AU set up a verification mechanism to "expeditiously investigate" the Congolese claims.

Dissident Congolese troops, lead by Gen Laurent Nkunda and Col Jules Mutebutsi, entered Bukavu on 2 June ostensibly in defence of Congolese Tutsis known as Banyamulenge who they said were being killed. But the UN Mission in the DRC said it found no sign of this.

After withdrawing from the town on 8 June, Mutebutsi's men crossed later into Rwanda where they were disarmed and placed in a camp.

Kagame said Rwanda would fulfill the agreement reached with Kabila in Abuja. They agreed to take immediate steps to calm the tension on their border, which had sparked fears of another war in the Great Lakes. The two countries also resolved to set up a joint verification mechanism to investigate activities on the frontier and adhere to the terms of the 2002 peace agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa. Under that treaty, signed by the two men, Rwanda undertook to withdraw is troops from the DRC and Congo agreed to expell Rwandan anti-government militias.

"We have all along supported the DRC transition government because we saw it as an instrument for stabilising the DRC by bringing together all factions," Kagame said.

On the Net: Kabila, Kagame agree steps to end tensions