African leaders to meet Annan, discuss flash points

Mbeki

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Four African presidents meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday to discuss flash points in the world's poorest continent, debt relief and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, diplomats said.

The presidents, meeting in advance of the U.N. Millennium Summit on Tuesday, the largest gathering of world leaders in history, intend to review the many-sided war in the Congo, as well as festering conflicts in Angola and Sierra Leone.

But talks on the Democratic Republic of the Congo will yield little or no results in the absence of its president, Laurent Kabila, who is not coming to New York.

Meeting Annan are Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Bakili Muluzi of Malawi as well as Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who have sent troops to the Congo.

Mbeki played down expectations of a breakthrough on Congo talks, saying in Stockholm on Monday that he did not expect major progress towards peace in the Congo at the Summit.

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"We have agreed with Kabila that we will do that (handle) complex issues when we come back," Mbeki said.

But rebel leaders said they were looking to the United Nations to rescue Congo's collapsing peace deal and avert a resumption of full-scale war in Africa's third largest country.

"We are looking up to the United Nations to support the Lusaka Peace Accord. We expect the United Nations to use its influence to get Kabila to comply," rebel leader Bizima Karaka said.

Implementation of the Congo deal has stalled over Kabila's rejection of a U.N. deployment in the Congo and the choice of an organiser of internal all-party talks, former Botswana president Ketumile Masire.

A U.N. Security Council statement that may be adopted by the Council's 15 members this week's firmly supports the ceasefire agreement signed in the Zambian capital of Lusaka last year. But Kabila wants amendments to the accord, saying the document had been overtaken by events in the Congo.

Kabila now wants direct talks between his government and the government of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda which back rebels fighting to overthrow him and separate direct talks with the rebels. Rwanda and Uganda have rejected Kabila's latest demand.

Annan and the African leaders will also tackle debt relief and AIDS, which has affected 24.5 million Africans out of the world's 34.3 sufferers.

Analysts say debt costs Africa more than $10 billion a year while millions still live on less that $1 a day. Despite a spreading AIDS epidemic, many countries spend more money servicing debt than on health.

A year ago, in a blaze of publicity, leaders of the Group of Seven industrial nations announced a $100 billion package of debt relief by the end of 2000 for some 40 of the poorest nations on earth.

Hardly any money has been released so far. One problem, experts say, is that the IMF has laid down stringent conditions for countries to qualify for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.

AIDS is now considered the biggest security threat to Africa but the world's poorest continent needs at least $3 billion a year to fight the disease, according to U.N. statistics.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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