ZAIRE's embattled leader, Mobutu Sese Seko, met a handful of fellow French-speaking African presidents in Gabon yesterday amid strong speculation that the ailing president will never return to his troubled country.
South Africa, which brought Mr Mobutu and the leader of the rebels who are sweeping Zaire, Mr Laurent Kabila, together on Sunday, said there were still hopeful signs that a peaceful accord could be achieved. A South African spokesman said Mr Kabila's rebels seemed to be respecting a pledge to halt their march on Kinshasa.
But on the actual war front, several hundred civilians and fighters from both sides were reported dead after a battle for Kenge, a town 200 kms (125 miles) east of Kinshasa. Humanitarian and church organisations were last night trying to ascertain whether massacres had taken place.
Residents of Kenge, in radio contact with Kinshasa, said the rebels controlled the town on Wednesday after Mr Mobutu's forces recaptured it briefly on Sunday night. They said over 300 people including 200 civilians were killed.
In Tanzania, South Africa's Deputy President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, said a second meeting between Mr Mobutu and Mr Kabila was set for next Wednesday. He added that the place was uncertain because of Mr Mobutu's health (he is suffering from prostate cancer).
In Paris, the US special envoy to Zaire, Mr Bill Richardson, said another meeting between the two sides was crucial to ensure a peaceful transfer of power.
"I think the probability is high for a second meeting and I'm also encouraged that this second meeting will produce a result that does not involve a violent end, and that includes also an inclusive transitional government," Mr Richardson said.
In Libreville, capital of the west African country of Gabon, Mr Mobutu, sporting his trademark leopard skin cap, embraced the Gabonese president, Mr Omar Bongo, another veteran leader who came to power in the mid-1960s.
The two met at the presidential palace with the presidents of Chad, Congo, the Central African Republic and former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea. The summit ended with a call for peace in Zaire, and the establishment of a regional centre for conflict resolution.
One Zairean opposition newspaper, the Patentie/, dubbed the meeting Mr Mobutu's "Goodbye summit" but Zaire's information minister, Mr Kin-Kiey Mulumba, rejected suggestions that the trip was a veiled flight into exile. "He is coming back after the summit, unless there is another meeting. There is no reason why the president should flee the country, no reason," Mr Mulumba said.
His ministry later withdrew the accreditation of four journalists from the Reuter newsagency and a producer for the US-based television company Cable News Network and told them to leave the country, accusing them of breaching accreditation guidelines.
Mr Mobutu (66) has dominated Africa's third largest country, formerly the Belgian Congo, for more than three decades. Mr Kabila and his rebels, who took up arms in October demanding Zairean nationality for ethnic Tutsis, now control three quarters of the mineral-rich nation. Kinshasa, the capital, which lies on the border with Congo, was reported calm yesterday but residents of the city of five million people were said to be apprehensive.
Meanwhile, a number of countries, including the US, Britain and Portugal, were ready to evacuate their nationals should Kinshasa fall, completing Mr Kabila's dominance.