D.R. Congo parliament opening postponed

The opening of the transitional parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo, scheduled for Monday, has been postponed indefinitely.

The announcement, on state radio, gave no reason; it said a seminar would be held instead for delegates arriving in Lubumbashi, where the parliament is based.

President Laurent Kabila, who is fighting rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, has ruled the country by decree for more than three years since seizing power in 1997.

Last July, some three-hundred delegates were selected from the country's eleven provinces to serve in the transitional parliament, set up as part of the country's promised move to democracy.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service