Future of talks to end fights in Congo becomes murky

JOHANNESBUG, South Africa -- The future of talks aimed at ending Congo's 3 1/2-year war was thrown in confusion Saturday after negotiations deadlocked without agreement on the makeup of a new government or a temporary constitution.

Contradictory reports came from former Botswana president Ketumile Masire, the chief mediator, on whether talks would resume Monday in South Africa as planned. The talks group Congo's government, its two main rebel movements and a number of opposition political groups.

A Masire aide told delegates Saturday that all sides would resume talks in three weeks in an undisclosed location, said Olivier Kamitatu, secretary general of the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement, or MLC.

But Masire later assured rebel leaders that negotiations would proceed in South Africa as originally planned, said Azarias Ruberwa, secretary general of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy, or RCD, the other major rebel group.

"I really don't know whether there will be a meeting on Monday," Kamitatu told The Associated Press after canceling plans to fly to Congo. "The situation is confused at the moment."

The talks deadlocked on Friday after Masire rejected a power-sharing deal struck behind the scenes between the government and the Ugandan-backed MLC that would have isolated the RCD, which is backed by Rwanda.

The RCD rejected the deal, which would allow President Joseph Kabila to keep his present position in a transitional government and make MLC chief Jean-Pierre Bemba the prime minister. The larger RCD was offered the presidency of the country's parliament.

The negotiations are part of a process defined in the 1999 cease-fire agreement signed by the government, rebels and their foreign backers, trying to end the war. Rwanda and Uganda back the rebels, and Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia back the government.