Renewed efforts to implement the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo are taking place in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

A senior Zambian official presidential affairs minister Erick Silwamba said one of the major issues to be resolved by the Joint Military Commission was underfunding.

He said a number of countries had not yet met their financial obligations under an accord reached last July.

The commission plans to get five-hundred ceasefire observers into Congo to liaise between the warring factions. The monitors will be backed by a five-thousand-strong protection force. Concern has been expressed at the United Nations that, unless the peacekeepers move into Congo soon, the war could escalate into a continental conflict because of the number of African countries supporting the opposing sides in what began as a civil war.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service