The Congolese war is one of the most serious this continent has ever experienced, precisely because of the large number of foreign armies involved - that's why the war will be so difficult to stop.

Each of the countries involved has its own motivation for being there - Rwanda and Uganda are ostensibly backing the Congolese rebels, in fact their main reason for being in the war is to stop their own rebels from using Congolese territory to attack them.

The same goes for Angola, which has a large number of battle-hardened troops backing President Kabila.

It wants to stop the Angolan UNITA rebels using rear bases in southern Congo.

Valuable mining concessions

The reasons why Zimbabwe and Namibia are backing President Kabila are less clear, but the Zimbabweans at least are now so deeply involved, that extracting them will take more than a verbal agreement in Paris.

Congo's great mineral wealth has always attracted rapacious power struggles, right from colonial times through to the economically disastrous rule of Mobutu Sese Seko which ended last year.