Rebel troops cheer and sing in Bomba

In this story:

• Rebels advance; where is Kabila?
• Recruits offered bread and sardines
• Kabila seeks outside support
• Other developments
• Related stories and sites

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo (CNN) -- With electricity out, a rebel army advancing on the capital and hundreds of Westerners fleeing the Democratic Republic of Congo, government radio cranked up a generator Tuesday and broadcast a call for soldiers to regroup at a Kinshasa military base to support President Laurent Kabila.

The call for more soldiers comes with Kabila's whereabouts unknown and his military disintegrating. One of his most important battalions -- the Zulu Battalion -- defected to the rebel side, according to a former military intelligence officer with close ties to the government.

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The entire battalion has abandoned Kabila over the past few days, the source said, leaving the towns of Inga and Nzongo -- and their important electrical supply stations -- to fall to the rebels.

Rebels advance; where is Kabila?

The Zulu Battalion was among the first units to enter Kinshasa last year when Kabila's army ousted longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila specifically dispatched the force to beat back the current rebel advance.

The rebels are now believed to be within 125 miles (200 kilometers) of Kinshasa, moving up from the west.

Kabila had been expected to return to Kinshasa on Monday night from the southern Congolese city of Lubumbashi, his stronghold during his own rebel days, but it was not clear if he had done so.

Congolese officials would only say Monday that he was in the country.

Recruits offered bread and sardines

The state radio broadcast also promised bread and sardines for all new recruits, as the government sought volunteers to beat back the rebel army, made up of disaffected members of the president's own military, his former Rwandan allies and ethnic Tutsi fighters.

Heavy fighting was reported Tuesday in Kimpese, about 200 kilometers (125) miles south of the city, with Kabila's soldiers fleeing from the rebel troops, according to a local journalist who had seen the combat.

Kabila's government also was in turmoil, with the deputy minister of the interior, Faustin Munene, arrested and accused of conspiring with the rebels.

Rebel leader Jean-Pierre Ondekane addresses citizens of rebel-siezed Bunia on Monday

Unconfirmed reports in the Congolese media said Munene, who was in charge of security, was accused of trying to persuade several truckloads of new recruits Monday to join the rebels. Jittery soldiers later fired on those recruits, injuring several.

Kabila seeks outside support

Despite the rebels' quick advance in the two weeks since the rebellion began, Kabila has remained publicly defiant, saying his soldiers would prevail and blaming the fighting on Rwanda and the West plotting against him.

But Kabila also has been seeking outside support. He was in Angola over the weekend to ask for troops and arms to shore up his troubled army, according to a senior Kabila adviser.

It was not clear how much, if any, support he was promised.

Angolan soldiers, along with former Rwandan and Ugandan allies, helped Kabila in his eight-month fight last year to oust Mobutu. Now, though, Kabila's former allies have turned against him.

While Rwanda denies involvement in the war, it is widely believed to be helping the rebels, who have captured a number of key towns in the east and, following a cross-country airlift, have been advancing on Kinshasa from the west as well.

In other developments Tuesday:

• Defense ministers from at least four southern African countries -- Angola, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe -- met again but there was no sign of a breakthrough toward ending the Congo crisis. "I understand there is no common strategy emerging from the meeting," one official said of the talks being held in Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare.

• Separately, diplomats from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Nambia, representing the Organization of African Unity and the Southern African Development Community, were meeting in the eastern Congolese city of Goma with rebel leaders, trying to determine whether Rwanda and Uganda had violated Congo's borders.

  "We're here to find out whether this is an invasion or an internal insurgency," Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told reporters.

• In Kinshasa, the situation has become increasingly tense. The capital city's residents have been stocking up on food essentials for days, fearing they will be cut off once the final assault comes. State radio urged shops Monday morning not to hike prices -- but gasoline and food prices have already been rising.

• France and Belgium continued evacuating some of their citizens and those from other countries. Belgium, Congo's former colonial ruler, is the only Western country presently allowed to land planes in Kinshasa for evacuations. Nearly 1,000 evacuations have taken place since last weekend.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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