Kinshasa - The United Nations said on Tuesday it was worried by ceasefire violations and delays in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's year-old peace process.
"The impasse in which the inter-Congolese dialogue finds itself, and the threats which continue to weigh on a fragile ceasefire, are areas of major concern," the UN's military observer mission in the Congo, MONUC, said in a statement.
The statement was released a day after the first anniversary of the signing of a peace accord in Lusaka, Zambia, by the six countries involved in the war.
Rebels signed up last August to the peace accord, which officially ended a war which started in 1998 when Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels rose up against President Laurent Kabila.
But the deal failed to halt the fighting despite renewed ceasefires, the latest of which came into effect on April 14.
It provided for the deployment of UN observers and for a dialogue on Congo's political future which has been blocked since Kinshasa rejected the agreed facilitator, former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire, in June.
Congolese Foreign Minister Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi said on Monday that Masire's presence at this week's summit in Togo of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was a factor in the Kinshasa government's decision to boycott the meeting.
The boycott was also a sign of solidarity with Angola, Kinshasa's ally in the Congo war, which is boycotting the Lome summit over Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema's alleged support for Angolan rebels, Yerodia said.
Kabila and the other Lusaka signatories approved Masire's nomination in December to facilitate the dialogue, but Masire's relationship with the government soon soured and he accused Kinshasa of preventing him from travelling within Congo.
After boycotting a preliminary meeting with rebel representatives in Benin in June to plan the dialogue, Kabila's government withdrew its confidence in Masire and said it wanted the OAU to appoint a new facilitator, accusing Masire of overstepping his mandate and not being impartial.
Security Council diplomats said after a briefing in late June that the OAU was against appointing a new mediator and wanted Kinshasa to iron out its differences with Masire. - Reuters