The dialogue is supposed to include representatives from the Kinshasa government, the rebel groups, the political parties and various civic organizations.

With a new administration in Washington, the Kinshasa government saw an opportunity to make its case, Congolese and diplomats here said.

Once in power, Mr. Kabila was joined in the Kinshasa government by many advisers from Rwanda.

The Kinshasa government, focused on rebels in eastern Congo, has been unwilling to flush Unita out.

Luvualu had been a leader of the União Geral dos Trabalhadores de Angola, but was handed over by the Kinshasa government to the Portuguese in 1971 and sentenced to forced labour.

The Kinshasa government asked the World Health Organization to help open a humanitarian corridor so they could also use the general hospital and medical personnel of Dekese.

Because of Mobutu's poor human rights record, the Carter Administration put some distance between itself and the Kinshasa government; even so, Zaire received nearly half the foreign aid Carter allocated sub-Saharan Africa.

In 1961, it was reconquered by the Katanga state, only to be taken back by the Kinshasa government later that year.

In 1971 the then UGTA general secretary, Mauricio Luvualu, was handed over to the Portuguese by the Kinshasa government.

The Rwandan government supported rebels in Zaire led by Laurent Kabila who overthrew the Kinshasa government with their help, and then fell out with them, leading to the Second Congo War.