• Cool reception for Kabila
• Call for regional peacekeeping
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November 27, 1998
Web posted at: 9:48 a.m. EST (1448 GMT)

PARIS (CNN) -- French President Jacques Chirac on Friday opened the 20th French-African summit amid hopes that a cease-fire might be called before the end of the year in the four-month old war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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The two-day summit in the French capital brings together representatives of 49 African nations and about three dozen heads of state.

Strife-torn Congo took center stage at the summit. The conflict is the biggest armed confrontation in central Africa and has drawn in several neighboring powers. Military analysts say the conflict risks degenerating into a major regional confrontation unless a negotiated settlement is reached soon.

Almost all the key players were in Paris for the summit -- including Congo President Laurent Kabila -- and were sitting around the same table for the first time since the fighting broke out at the start of August.

Chirac repeated his call for a peace conference for the Great Lakes region of central Africa, saying the area had been afflicted by an endless chain of crises.

"We are doing this because we are convinced that the causes of these crises are complex, serious and interconnected, and have to be treated as such in a global fashion," he told delegates in the central Paris Louvre complex.

Cool reception for Kabila

Chirac gave Kabila a noticeably cool welcome when the leader arrived for the opening session of the conference.

Kabila held out little hope that progress could be made at the summit, saying a pullout of Rwandan and Ugandan forces, which are backing the rebels, was a precondition for substantive talks on a peace settlement.

In an interview broadcast Thursday on Radio France Internationale, Kabila added that his own allies, Angola and Zimbabwe, "were not pushing (him) to negotiate."

Kabila and the Ugandan president are scheduled to hold separate talks with Chirac on Saturday.

Call for regional peacekeeping

Chirac also called on African nations to do their own peacekeeping.

"Instability is not Africa's fate," Chirac told the gathering, adding that ensuring stability "naturally, is the responsibility of Africans themselves." .

But, "The reality at the end of 1998 is that a quarter of sub-Saharan African states are in crisis," he said, "in most cases, spilling over national borders."

The French president called on African nations to move forward with their own plans for regional security. He added that this would not imply an "erosion of responsibilities" by the United Nations or the international community.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.