GENEVA, May 21: Justice authorities in the newly named Democratic Republic of Congo will ask the United States and five European countries to freeze all assets belonging to ousted Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko, a spokesman announced on Tuesday.

Mukono Mumba, public prosecutor in Lubumbashi in the south of the country, will present a legal request next week to the United States, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Liechtenstein, said an Alliance representative for Europe, Ghislain Demofike.

Mumbai presented Switzerland with the same request last week. The Swiss government on Saturday froze the assets of Mobutu's family while on Friday authorities in Bern impounded his 5.6-million dollar villa near Lausanne.Further demands to freeze the ousted President's assets are planned for Japan, Portugal, Spain and several African countries, Demofike added.

However, in an interview published on Tuesday in the French newspaper Le Monde, a Belgian banker claimed most of Mobutu's fortune is now in South Africa. The financial source, who wished to remain anonymous, said he ``doubted that Mobutu and his family's assets in a broad sense, (now) totalled four billion dollars as was the case during the 1980s.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.