Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos began a summit here Sunday with his counterparts from Zimbabwe and Namibia to discuss the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo following the assassination of DRC leader Laurent Kabila.
The three countries all have troops fighting alongside DRC government forces against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
"The path of dialogue and cooperation is the best one, and it is the one we support so that the Lusaka accords can be implemented" in the DRC, Dos Santos said as he opened the talks with Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Sam Nujoma of Namibia.
A peace deal signed in Lusaka in 1999 failed to halt the fighting in the DRC, and the United Nations has been unable to deploy peacekeepers, as agreed then.
The meeting among allies in the war in the DRC was called to review the situation there following the death of Kabila, who was fatally shot at his Kinshasa residence by a bodyguard last Tuesday in circumstances that remain obscure.
His 32-year-old son, General Joseph Kabila, has been appointed to run the country in the meantime.
"The allied forces should help restore confidence, calm and order" in the DRC, dos Santos said.
In Zimbabwe earlier, the state-owned Sunday Mail quoted a government spokesman saying the talks would lead to another meeting of all the belligerents in a bid to find a lasting peace in the vast central African country -- LUANDA (AFP)
