The Council of the European Union announced on Thursday that it had approved "the concept" of EU troops supporting MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the presidential and legislative elections process this year.

Describing the Democratic Republic of Congo as being at a ?critical stage? ahead of landmark 18 June elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met officials in the east of the country, saying that he felt Congolese were excited at the prospect of electing their own leaders and ending the long, bloody civil conflict.

The social problems of the post-war transition in the Democratic republic of Congo were at the heart of the meeting between the president of the Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, and the head of state, Joseph Kabila.