HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Senior U.S. diplomats pressed forward Tuesday in seeking a cease-fire in the Congo war, but continued to receive a frosty welcome.

U.S. President Bill Clinton's top Africa official, Susan Rice, was kept waiting for several hours Tuesday for a meeting with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has deployed 6,000 troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo to support its president, Laurent Kabila, against rebels.

Angola and Namibia have also sent troops to aid Kabila.

Mugabe was instead chairing a Cabinet meeting, U.S. officials said. By early afternoon, Rice was still waiting to hear when Mugabe would be available.

Rice

Rice has so far also visited Angola, Congo and Zambia, but appeared to have made little progress at ending a war that has already embroiled troops from as many as eight countries and threatens to escalate.

During her three-day visit to Angola last week, Rice failed to gain a meeting with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

He was due to meet her just before she left, but then he called a Cabinet meeting for the same time.

Kabila and Mugabe have sharply criticized U.S. efforts to broker a Congo peace agreement, arguing that Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia deployed troops to repel an invasion by rebels backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops.

Mugabe has described U.S. calls for the withdrawal of international troops from Congo as "absolutely abominable" and demanded Rwanda and Uganda withdraw first, saying that would lead to the collapse of the rebel campaign and bring peace.

A major stumbling block to peace is Rwanda's refusal to publicly admit having troops in Congo, Kabila and his allies say. Kabila says he cannot negotiate with the rebels who are puppets of Rwanda and Uganda.

The rebels say only direct negotiations with Kabila can end war.

Uganda acknowledges it has troops in Congo, but says they are there to strike at Congo-based Ugandan rebels.

Mugabe announced Sunday that an allied offensive on rebel strongholds in eastern Congo was making gains and would "clear the enemy" from Congolese territory.

Rice, who was greeted Monday by low-ranking Zimbabwe officials, said she wanted to meet with Mugabe and "hear his thoughts" on the fighting.

The U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs was expected to leave late Tuesday for Rwanda for talks there with President Pasteur Bizimungu and Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, who is the vice president, minister of defense and the chief architect of Rwanda's policy in Congo.

Rice, accompanied by Clinton's special assistant, Gayle Smith and his special envoy to the Great Lakes region, Howard Wolpe, is scheduled to travel Wednesday to Uganda.

The three-month rebellion by ethnic Tutsis, disenchanted members of the Congolese army and opposition politicians has drawn in many nearby countries.

In August, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia pushed the rebels away from the capital, Kinshasa, in western Congo.

Since then, the rebels have rebounded, making steady gains from their eastern strongholds against copper-rich southern Katanga Province and Mbuji-Mayi, capital of diamond-rich Eastern Kasai.

Rwanda, which backs the rebels with troops and arms, accuses Kabila of anti-Tutsi hatred and failing to rid the common border of former Hutu soldiers and militias responsible for the 1994 genocide of 500,000 people in Rwanda.

The slaughter ended when Tutsi-led rebels won power in July 1994, but Hutu rebels continued to use eastern Congo to regroup and launch cross-border attacks into Rwanda.

The rebels said Monday they had repelled an attack at Kabalo, 600 kilometers (375 miles) southwest of Rwandan border, but gave no details. Fighting was also reported around rebel-held Kalemie on Lake Tanganyika.

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