ZAIREAN President, Mr Mobutu Sese Seko's party said yesterday it was ready to share power ahead of elections with Mr Laurent Kabila's rebels who have siezed about a quarter of the country since fighting started in October.
"We shall meet and after dialogue we will share power," Mr Banza Mukalayi, vice-chairman of Mobutu's Popular Revolutionary Movement (MPR), said in Kinshasa.
His comments went much further than previous signs that the ailing Mr Mobutu and his party were ready to seek a deal with Mr Kabila's Tutsi-dominated rebels.
"First we will talk to find the mechanism for a ceasefire and then we will share power before elections," Mr Banza said.
Under Mr Mobutu's laborious and grudging moves towards democracy after 32 years in power, Zaire is supposed to hold its first real multiparty elections by July.
Both sides are under mounting pressure to stop the civil war, agree a ceasefire and enter negotiations. On Monday, Prime Minister, Mr Kengo wa Dondo, resigned after Mr Mobutu essentially backed a disputed vote by the transitional parliament to oust Mr Kengo.
The pressure to end the fighting will intensify at an African summit in the Togolese capital Lome today attended by the U.N. Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who said he hoped progress could be made to resolve the conflict.
"The Zairean government has insisted that a ceasefire take place before talks can begin, and Kabila has said that talks must proceed before there is a ceasefire," Mr Annan told a news conference in the Angolan capital Luanda.
"I hope that in Lome we will find a basis for moving forward by perhaps having a ceasefire and talks begin simultaneously."
A U.N. official travelling with Mr Annan said he expected talks in Lome to start immediately.
"It will either be Kabila himself who will talk to some of Mobutu's people or it will be Kabila's top representatives who will meet with them," the official said.
The rebels are still about 1,000 km (600 miles) east of Kinshasa but they cave mineral-rich Shaba province in their sights and so far Zaire's ragged army has failed to put up a fight.
South African sources said Mr Kabila had dropped a demand for direct talks with Mobutu and agreed to negotiate with a team appointed by the 66-year-old president.
But the government sources, close to South African mediation in the Zaire crisis, said Mr Kabila was only prepared to negotiate once and the outcome had to be conclusive.
Neither the rebels nor Mr Mobutu's camp commented on the report
South African envoys who met Mr Mobutu in Kinshasa on Sunday said he would reply to the new peace ideas within 48 hours.
The deadline was last night and Zaire's state television said yesterday the president's spokesman, Mr Kabuya Lumuna, would make a statement on Mr Mobutu's behalf in the evening.
Mr Mobutu and Mr Kabila have both sent teams to Lome for the special Organisation of, African Unity (OAU) summit.