Mark Doyle in Abidjan: "The rebel's statement cmes as no surprise"

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, leader of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), one of the rebel groups, said that he did not recognise the reported deal between Congo, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda because the representatives he had sent to the Franco-African summit had not been included in talks.

A Rwandan Government spokesman, Patrick Mazimhaka, also played down the significance of the agreement in Paris.

He said: "I think there was no deal in Paris."

"At Paris what was missing was the presence of the rebel movement in Congo, which is doing most of the fighting against the government of Kabila.

Rwanda and Uganda are backing the Tutsi-dominated rebels while Zimbabwe and several other African countries have supplied troops to President Kabila.

"We have always been ready for negotiations, even talks leading to a cease-fire," said Mr Wamba dia Wamba.

Laurent Kabila: Refuses to meet rebels

"But deals that exclude us will not be effective because they will not be implemented."

President Kabila has refused to hold talks with the rebels, saying that they are merely the tools of their backers.

In turn, Uganda and Rwanda say their troops are only in the country to block their own rebels from using Congo as a base.

Deal hailed

The Congo conflict dominated the two-day Franco-African summit.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for the nations to put their own house in order.

Kofi Annan: "In this war we may face our greatest challenge"

Mr Annan, working with France's President Jacques Chirac and the current chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, persuaded the four main parties in the conflict to hold talks on Saturday.

But despite announcing a ceasefire agreement to be in place within weeks, both Mr Kabila and Rwandan leader Pasteur Bizimungu, said nothing had been signed.

Further talks could take place at December's OAU summit, they added.