Rwanda has given a cautious welcome to an agreement reached at a regional peace summit that could help end the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who took power after his father Laurent was assassinated last month, agreed at the summit on Thursday to let the United Nations begin deploying peacekeepers in DR Congo from February 26th.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame refused to attend the meeting in Lusaka, accusing Zambian leader Mr Frederick Chiluba of partiality in his role in the peace process.
Regional leaders agreed that the international community, under the auspices of the UN, must underwrite security guarantees for Rwanda and prevent attacks on it by exiled Rwandan Hutu militiamen who have set up bases inside DR Congo.
President Kagame's spokesman, Mr Patrick Mazimhaka, said the outcome of the Lusaka talks "sounded positive", although he said the government was still assessing the results.
Rwanda has sent over 20,000 troops into the Congo and backs the largest rebel group in the country, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). With its ally Uganda it nearly toppled Laurent Kabila in 1998 before Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe intervened to halt sweeping rebel advances.
Mr Mazimhaka said hopes for peace rested on whether the UN could enforce a peace agreement signed in Lusaka in 1999, which has since been widely flouted.
"What we have in mind is for the UN to get the process back on track," he said.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council began studying a draft resolution yesterday which would set a date for foreign armies to leave DR Congo, diplomats said. The draft welcomes the decision of President Joseph Kabila to accept the international mediator.
It also notes "the recent progress made in achieving respect for the ceasefire", which was signed in Lusaka on July 10th, 1999, by Laurent Kabila and by five other presidents who had intervened militarily for or against him.
The foreign ministers of all six countries and representatives of three Congolese rebel groups which have endorsed the Lusaka accord are expected to attend a two-day meeting with the Security Council on Tuesday.
The draft resolution demands that all parties immediately start to withdraw to defensive positions set out in a disengagement agreement they signed in Harare on December 6th.