Cease-Fire Holds in Congo's Capital City

UN troops seen on patrol in the city of Kinshasa, Congo, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. The United Nations called for an immediate cease-fire Tuesday on the third day of fighting between rival army supporters of Congo's two presidential candidates. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called Congo President Joseph Kabila and his main challenger Jean-Pierre Bemba to express his "deep concern after the unacceptable events" of the past two days, according to a statement. (AP Photo/John Bompeng) (John Bompengo - AP)

KINSHASA, Congo -- A truce between troops loyal to Congo's two presidential candidates held Wednesday and calm returned to the capital, officials said, after three days of Kinshasa's worst violence in several years.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the rivals to meet "as quickly as possible to ease tensions," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York.

He said top U.N. envoy William Lacy Swing was in Congo "pushing hard" to arrange a meeting of President Joseph Kabila and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba.

The clashes erupted Sunday as officials announced Kabila failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first balloting in decades, meaning he would face Bemba in a second round.

U.N. spokesman Kemal Saiki said a cease-fire brokered Tuesday by the world body was holding and transportation had returned to normal in Kinshasa.

The three days of fighting left 31 people dead, a Congolese military official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

While Congo's eastern borderlands remain violent, widespread fighting hadn't hit Kinshasa since the 2002 peace accords that established a national-unity government.

The fighting has raised political tensions as the two candidates prepare to campaign before the Oct. 29 runoff election. Some citizens were downbeat Wednesday, fearing more strife.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are still differences between our politicians that need to be settled," said Jean-Claude Lukusa, 47, a businessman in Kinshasa. "I don't think these elections will have a happy ending."

Tuesday's fighting raged for hours until the United Nations, with 17,500 peacekeepers in Congo, demanded a halt to hostilities and U.N. envoy William Swing began brokering truce talks.

Even with the end to fighting that saw Kabila's forces using tanks against Bemba's fighters, deep-rooted enmities remain in Congo's armed forces, which has 100,000 troops.

The elections were meant to end years of unrest that began shortly after independence from Belgium in 1960. Congo's last multiparty vote for a leader was in 1961. The winner was killed as military regimes took power.

___

AP writer Sarah DiLorenzo at the United Nations contributed to this report.