Kabila says U.N. demands deny Congo sovereignty

KINSHASA, Congo (Reuters) -- President Laurent Kabila said on Wednesday U.N. demands for total freedom of movement for its cease-fire observers in the Democratic Republic of Congo amounted to a denial of national sovereignty.

But Kabila, speaking on his return from the latest Congo peace summit, said his government would do what was necessary for the observers to fulfill their mission.

Earlier, the U.N. said Kabila had agreed at the summit in Mozambique's capital Maputo on Monday to lift all obstacles to the deployment of its observers -- but added that it wanted written guarantees.

"With (U.N. special envoy) Ambassador (Kemal) Morjane, it's always a question of more freedom, in other words the scrapping of sovereignty," Kabila told the television. But he added: "We will give what it is necessary to give."

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Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda took up arms against Kabila in August 1998. They now control the east and parts of the north of the country.

Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops and equipment to prop up Kabila.

The Security Council agreed in January to deploy 500 military observers and 5,000 support troops to help implement a 1999 peace deal signed by the main warring parties.

Amadou Toure, spokesman for the observer mission, said in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Wednesday that Kabila had agreed in Maputo to drop a condition that observers deploying in the Congo had to transit through Kinshasa.

"President Kabila announced his intention to lift all obstacles to the deployment of (U.N.) forces," Toure said.

But Kabila has given similar assurances in the past and another member of the mission, Juan Pekmez, told reporters that the United Nations would need written guarantees.

The United Nations, which accuses Kabila of dragging his feet on the freedom of movement issue, has deployed only about 100 observers in the Congo and capitals of countries caught up in the two-year-old conflict.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki said in Maputo on Monday that those countries had reaffirmed their commitment to an April agreement in Uganda to pull back from front-line positions.

Kabila, he added, had pledged to cooperate with the U.N.

But Kabila accused Rwanda and Uganda of refusing to negotiate in Maputo and deplored the lack of a final summit communique.

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