U.S.'s Rice seeks to ease African crises

ADDIS ABABA - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday received commitments from Africa's Great Lakes countries to stick to previous promises to end a conflict in eastern Congo which risks spilling across borders.

On her second trip to sub-Saharan African in two years, Rice met with the presidents of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as a minister from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and listed three areas of agreement.

They included the "rapid strengthening" of security forces in Congo, reiteration of a commitment not to "harbour negative forces" and a recommitment to previous agreements. But there appeared to be no concrete or new ideas on the table.

"The three-point plan which she summarised is a good restatement of what we have talked about before, but this time with more vigour," said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at a news conference with Rice.

Congo's 1998-2003 war pulled in six neighbouring states and became a place to settle scores from previous conflicts, including Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Fighting has flared in the past few months in eastern Congo, which is roamed by various militias, including some linked to neighbouring countries.

Washington wants all sides to deal with "negative forces" including the FDLR (Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda), made up of key figures in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, plus Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army and renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda.

BASHIR BOYCOTT

In her meeting with Somalia's new prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, Rice sought to bolster his credibility while at the same time urging him to be more "inclusive" in pulling together his fragile government.

"I think everyone understands the difficulty of the job ahead of you but also that you are a respected leader, and the importance of broadening the political basis for reconciliation in Somalia," Rice said at the beginning of her meeting.

Five Somali cabinet members have resigned, a day after being appointed to protest against what they said was their clan's under-representation in the government which is faced with clan divisions and an Islamist insurgency.

Hussein said the meeting with Rice was very positive and his government would make it a priority to be "inclusive".

Later Rice met officials from southern Sudan to try to prevent the unravelling of a north-south agreement but Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir declined to send a delegate.

Rice dismissed Bashir's decision not to send a representative, telling reporters: "That's fine, we have had plenty of contact with the Sudanese government on this issue."

She said she would push southern Sudanese officials to return to cabinet meetings. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) pulled out of the government in October to protest slow implementation of the January 2005 north-south peace deal, which ended Africa's longest civil war.

Rice also raised concerns with the African Union Secretary General Alpha Oumar Konare over delays in deploying a U.N.-AU peacekeeping force for Darfur.

She reiterated U.S. frustration at hold-ups by the Sudanese government in letting in the peacekeepers to resolve a conflict international experts estimate has claimed about 200,000 lives.

"We are just going to have to remove these obstacles and get on with it," she said.

The schedule for getting 26,000 peacekeepers into Darfur by year-end is months behind and Rice said she was pressing Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which have some influence over Bashir.

Rice was set to have dinner with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to discuss Ethiopia's role in Somalia and the escalating border dispute with neighbouring Eritrea.