Ugandan deputy premier in Kigali to see Kagame

Uganda's third deputy premier, James Wapakhabulo, is in the Rwandan capital Kigali, to meet President Paul Kagame, an official in Rwanda confirmed to IRIN on Thursday. He added, however, that he had no details of Wapakhabulo's programme.

The Ugandan government-owned New Vision newspaper quoted Wapakhabulo as telling the Ugandan parliamentary committee on presidential and foreign affairs on Wednesday that he would travel to Kigali to deliver a special message from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

"I am going to Kigali to meet President Kagame as a follow-up on the leadership in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)," the paper quoted him as saying. He told the committee that relations with Rwanda were improving. "The two presidents are talking, although we still have a few hitches, but that is normal in life," he said.

Meanwhile, Uganda and Rwanda are to set up permanent military liaison offices at border posts to share security information and monitor any possible activity by each other's enemies, The New Vision quoted officials as saying.

It said a memorandum of understanding to set up the liaison offices at Katuna and Mirama Hills border points had yet to be signed by the respective foreign affairs ministers, a senior Ugandan official was quoted by The New Vision as saying on Wednesday. "The memorandum is already drafted, but it has not been signed, because the ministers are too busy," the paper quoted a foreign ministry source as saying.

An official source in Kigali also confirmed to IRIN on Thursday that the setting up of the liaison offices had been proposed by the Joint Investigation and Verification Committee of the two countries, but was still in draft form, pending approval by the ministers of defence of the two countries.