Congo summit due next week

Zambia is to host a regional summit next week to kick-start the stalled peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), government officials in Lusaka told IRIN on Friday. New DRC President Joseph Kabila is expected to attend the meeting on Tuesday, along with key regional heads of state and rebel leaders, to "gauge the implementation" of the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement, a senior Zambian foreign ministry official said. He added that the summit had been agreed on in principle last month, "and has nothing to do really with what has happened in the Congo" following the assassination of former DRC leader Laurent-Desire Kabila.

But the official noted that Zambia "wouldn't be holding the summit if we weren't confident that progress could be made". He added that after "frenetic activity on the diplomatic front" it was felt that "this was the opportune time for leaders to come together and compare notes". The last DRC summit meeting was in August last year. The Zambian official said that the delay in the planned deployment of UN peacekeepers was undermining trust in the peace accord, and "as parties to the peace process, we feel we have done our best to create the necessary conditions for the UN to deploy".

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has repeatedly stressed that UN blue helmets would only be dispatched once there was a comprehensive ceasefire on the ground. Meanwhile, inter-Congolese political dialogue facilitator Sir Ketumile Masire is in Lome, Togo to brief the chairman of the OAU Yasimbe Eyadema, his office told IRIN on Friday. Greater clarity over the potential role of a deputy or a co-facilitator for Sir Ketumile is expected to emerge after the regional summit. Implementation of the inter-Congolese dialogue was a key provision of the Lusaka peace agreement, but was blocked by Kinshasa.

Sir Ketumile was appointed by the OAU.