A concerted drive at the weekend by President Nelson Mandela to unite southern African states around a 10-point peace plan for the strife-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) failed to win overt endorsement from three centrally important regional leaders.
Presidents Laurent Kabila of the Congo, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Eduardo dos Santos of Angola did not attend the back-to-peace summits held successively on Saturday and yesterday in Pretoria. Thus South Africa's initiative was - at best - only partially successful.
Even as Mr Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki sought to persuade regional leaders to support their plan, Zimbabwean and Angolan troops were reported to have arrived in the Congo to help shore up Mr Kabila's regime against rebel forces. Mr Mandela fears this may compound rather than resolve the crisis.
Simultaneously there were reports of an intensification of fighting in the Congo, including a rebel advance on the capital, Kinshasa.
Mr Kabila pleaded illness, but sent his Justice and Transport Ministers as emissaries to the Pretoria talks.
Mr Dos Santos was unable to attend for "practical reasons", apparently a reference to fears of a UNITA-led rebellion in his own country.
Mr Mugabe defended his plan for military intervention by some members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The South African plan, which was mooted at a regional summit on Saturday and then discussed at a meeting of SADC in Pretoria yesterday, involves working for an immediate ceasefire, reaffirming recognition of Mr Kabila's government and then, critically, striving for the installation of a government of national unity to press ahead with plans for democratic elections.
On the positive side for Mr Mandela's plan, Saturday's talks were attended by two men whose agreement is essential for the success of the plan - President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and President Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda. They are allegedly backing the Tutsi-led rebellion against Mr Kabila.
Mr Mbeki was upbeat that weekend talks had laid the foundation for the first vital phase of the peace plan: the achievement of a ceasefire.
President Daniel arap Moi, who attended the talks, was similarly hopeful, telling reporters that he agreed with most of its elements.
Emmanuel Goujon reports from Goma:
Rebels in the Congo vowed yesterday to keep fighting despite having lost a key military base to Angolan troops backing President Kabila.
"The war, the true war, starts now," said Mr Arthur Ngoma, deputy president of the Congolese Rally for Democracy, the rebels' political wing.
Angolan troops yesterday recaptured a strategic military base at Kitona, 500km (300 miles) southwest of Kinshasa. The base had been under rebel control since shortly after the Tutsi-led rebellion broke out on August 2nd.
Rebel leaders also said they had captured the far north-eastern city of Kisangani, the second largest city in the Congo, yesterday. In Kinshasa, the government refused to confirm or deny the claim.
The rebels said they were also advancing on the town of Kalemie in the south-east, bordering Lake Tanganyika, and were approaching the outskirts of Kinshasa.
"Despite the intervention of foreign troops the morale of our fighters remains high. We are determined to fight on until the end," said Mr Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, the rebels' political leader.
"Once we are in Kinshasa, it will be Kabila who is the rebel and that must change the position of certain countries in the region who have taken up the cause of the dictator," said another rebel leader.
However, the military intervention by Angola and Zimbabwe in support of Mr Kabila's embattled forces may have tipped the balance in the three-week-old rebellion.
Ethnic Tutsis, known as the Banyamulenge, within the Congolese army began their rebellion in the eastern Congo and quickly took control of strategic areas linking the narrow south-western seaboard with the capital.