BITTER wrangling between the victorious rebel leadership in Congo and Mobutu Sese Seko's political opponents over who are the deposed dictator's legitimate heirs is delaying installation of a new government in the former Zaire.
Mr Laurent Kabila, who has received the backing of South Africa's President, Mr Nelson Mandela, flew into Kinshasa on Tuesday evening prepared to bow to international pressure for a broad based transitional administration, which he would head as president.
Senior officials of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo Zaire say that Mr Kabila is open to including the capital's most popular political leader, the former prime minister, Mr Etienne Tshisekedi, in a new cabinet. But Mr Tshisekedi's aides say he insists on the post of prime minister, an office he has claimed since Mr Mobutu sacked him five years ago.
Mr Tshisekedi also demands the right to choose his own cabinet in line with the Mobutuera constitution, which the Alliance has scrapped. Under that constitution, power lies with the premiership and Mr Kabila would be a largely powerless president.
The Alliance had promised a new government would be announced by Tuesday. But, in a sign of the mutual deep suspicion between the rebels and the established political class, a meeting between the two fell through after Mr Tshisekedi refused to visit an Alliance leadership hotel suite, saying that as "prime minister" they should come to him.
The Alliance and Mr Tshisekedi's aides have had telephone contact in an attempt to arrange a meeting between Mr Kabila and the former prime minister (both considered stubborn men). Mr Tshisekedi has mobilised many of Kinshasa's mass of highly partisan newspapers, some of them owned by him. Le Phare greeted Mr Kabila with a front page headline, and a warning: "Welcome Mr President, but Kinshasa has not signed a blank cheque."
Outside Mr Tshisekedi's home, crowds of mainly young men gathered to express their views in the usual aggressive style. Kabila cannot just come here and tell us what to do," said Felix Kubanda. Kabila must not be like Mobutu. There is a constitution and he should stick to it. Otherwise we'll take Kabila and send him back to his friends in Rwanda."
The Alliance has been considering a system modelled on Uganda, under which party politics is suppressed in favour of ministers sitting in the cabinet as individuals not representatives of partisan interests. The attraction of this for the victorious rebels is clear. The new Congo has about 450 parties born in the seven years since Mr Mobutu liberalised politics. But many were created by the deposed president to sow confusion and division.
Reuter adds from Kinshasa: Mr Mobutu's two most senior generals still at large surrendered to Mr Kabila's forces here yesterday before a crowd of jeering youths.
Gen Amela Lokima, military governor of Kinshasa and deputy armed forces chief of staff, and Gen Michel Elessi, commander of Mr Mobutu's forces in the capital, came to a leading hotel and were taken away by security officials.
The two men were rumoured to have been killed by Mobutu loyalists angry that the armed forces were prepared to give up without a fight.