The deal, signed here in the presence of President Laurent Kabila by the government and the three main rebel groups and their respective allies, resolved the issue of control over the army once the new government is in place.

The interim government was provided for under a peace pact signed in December in South Africa to end the DRC's four-and-a-half-year war, which drew in a dozen African nations at its height and killed some 2.5 million people, either directly in combat or indirectly through disease and hunger.

Sources here said that President Kabila could later Sunday name the members of the transition government that is aimed at leading the vast central African country to free elections.

WAR.WIRE