African leaders threw down the gauntlet to Congo's warring factions yesterday and demanded that the crumbling Lusaka peace agreement be implemented immediately.
In opening statements at a Lusaka summit attended by Congo President Laurent Kabila and called in the name of the 14-member Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the leaders said that they saw no excuse for the near collapse of the peace pact.
They said they were frustrated by the failure of the Democratic Republic of Congo's president and his adversaries to implement a peace deal signed a year ago and told them the time to move forward to save their country had now arrived.
"The DRC peace process is ours . . . We initiated it, negotiated it and signed the agreement. We must now implement it fully. No one, and I repeat no one has greater interest in it than ourselves and Africa at large," said the Zambian President, Mr Frederick Chiluba, the chief Congo negotiator.
Inside the summit hall, Mr Kabila came face-to-face with adversaries Rwandan President Maj-Gen Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who back rebels fighting to topple him.
He sat stony-faced and silent, and did not once look in their direction.
Rebel leaders, Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba and Mr Emille Illunga stared at Mr Kabila. Another Ugandan-backed rebel, Mr Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, was not present.
The African leaders and Congo rebel groups went into closed-door talks after the formal opening.
Earlier, Mr Kabila told reporters on arrival in Lusaka: "I am very confident and that's why I have come here."
Mr Chiluba, Mr Kagame, Mr Museveni, Mr Kabila, the presidents of Malawi, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and King Mswati III of Swaziland are in Lusaka for the summit.