PRESIDENT Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and the rebel leader, Dr Jonas Savimbi, met in Gabon yesterday for talks on a faltering 1994 pact to end two decades of civil war.
"President dos Santos and Dr Savimbi are meeting privately", a Gabon foreign ministry official said in the Central African country's capital, Libreville.
Mr Dos Santos arrived earlier and was met by the Gabonese President, Mr Omar Bongo, Dr Savimbi and the UN special envoy to Angola, Mr Alioune Blondin Beye.
The two Angolans then went into talks, their fourth meeting since the accord was signed in Zambia in November 1994.
Delegations from the Luanda government and Dr Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) meanwhile began meetings in the presence of foreign observers monitoring the peace process.
The summit was also attended by Mr Beye and representatives of the "troika" monitoring the peace pact former colonial power Portugal, Russia and the United States.
The Angolan government and Unita are under considerable pressure from the international community to make swift progress on the demobilisation and disarmament of their rival armies.