UN winds up Congo mission

A high level UN Security Council delegation has ended its tour of central and east Africa, looking at ways of ending the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN ambassadors visited eight countries which are involved politically or militarily in the conflict.

At the end of their mission, the head of the delegation, Jean-David Levitte of France, told reporters in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, that the tour had achieved concrete results.

He referred to the pledge by the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, that new talks between all the parties involved would begin in July.

The parties signed a peace accord in Lusaka in 1999, but it has been repeatedly violated. The United Nations has already deployed some 2,000 peace-keeping troops in the country.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service