S.Africa's Mbeki in fresh Congo peace bid

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -- South African President Thabo Mbeki will chair a presidential summit in Mozambique on Monday to try to salvage a peace deal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where fresh fighting was reported on Sunday.

Mbeki's spokesman, Nazeem Mahatey, told Reuters the talks were a follow-up to previous regional attempts to try to revive a peace accord signed in Lusaka in 1998, which both sides in the conflict have repeatedly violated.

"The leaders will be looking at how to revive and advance the Lusaka peace process," Mahatey said.

Patrick Mazimhaka, senior diplomatic advisor to Rwandan President Paul Kagame told Reuters by telephone from Kigali that his government would be looking for positive gestures from the Congolese government.

"We are hoping that there will be some good news coming out of tomorrow's meeting in Mozambique. We hope (Congolese President Laurent) Kabila will accept to move the peace deal forward," Mazimhaka said.

The meeting will bring together the leaders of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Congo, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.

Rwanda and Uganda back rebels fighting to oust Kabila, while Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe are defending him.

TALKS SEEK COMPLIANCE BY MAIN PLAYERS

"The talks in Maputo will try to get the main players to agree to move the peace process forward. The leaders will be examining ways of doing just that," a diplomat said.

Another diplomat said Mbeki was trying to get a commitment on troop withdrawals from the Congo to allow United Nations peacekeepers to deploy in the former Zaire under the Lusaka peace accords.

"The strategy revolves around getting the rebel backers and Kabila's allies to commit themselves to some kind of agreement that would facilitate implementation of the Lusaka peace accords," the diplomat added.

The fractured rebel groups have not been invited to the day-long talks, which come as renewed fighting is reported in Africa's third largest country.

Rwandan-backed rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) said on Sunday they killed 20 government soldiers in the eastern province of Katanga. They said government troops burned six villages and massacred 50 civilians in Kasai province.

"Kabila has launched a major offensive on all our positions in Katanga, Kasai and Equateur provinces," Jean-Pierre Ondekane, commander of the RCD, told Reuters.

He said government soldiers and troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, attacked the rebel-held town of Musosa near the Zambian border.

Rebel sources said the pro-Kabila Mayi Mayi militia -- former Rwandan soldiers who fled their country after the 1994 genocide -- and Burundi Hutu rebels participated in the attack.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

Fighting at Musosa continued on Sunday, a rebel source in the eastern Congolese town of Goma said.

International initiatives to revive the Congo peace accord have failed because Kabila has refused to yield on two key issues: deployment of U.N. troops in the country and acceptance of ex-Botswana leader Ketumile Masire as organiser of all-party internal talks on the future of the Congo.

Kabila wants a new organiser to replace Masire, a suggestion rejected by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

A cocktail of rebel groups directly backed by troops from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda control the east and large parts of the north of Congo in a standoff with government troops.

Rebels took up arms in 1998 to oust Kabila after Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated army led a seven-month war that toppled dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and propelled Kabila to power in May 1997.

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