The initiative to hold a crisis meeting comes as the Tutsi-led rebels which DRC President Laurent Kabila says are backed by troops and arms from Rwanda and Uganda - moved to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the DRC capital Kinshasa, according to diplomats.

On Thursday, the first contingent of Zimbabwean soldiers arrived in the country to back Kabila's army, and there were indications on Friday from sources in Angola's northern Cabinda enclave that special Angolan forces were on their way to add reinforcements.

Zimbabwe had sent in the contingent in line with an agreement by the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) to counter ``Rwandan aggression''.

DRC state television, which earlier showed pictures of rifle-totting Zimbabwean soldiers getting offa military transport plane at Kinshasa's N'djili airport, did not say how many had arrived nor whether additional reinforcements were expected.

The special troops from Angola, backed by armored vehicles, left for the DRC after having landed by plane in the northern Cabinda enclave, according to sources in Cabinda reached by telephone from Luanda. More were waiting to go.

The sources said it was likely that the Angolan troops would head through neighbouring Congo before crossing the Congo river to arrive in the DRC.

They would then try to stop the rebel advance at Kimwenza and Kasangulu, southwest of Kinshasa, the sources said. The arrival of the Zimbabwean soldiers drew a sharp rebuke from Rwanda, which has denied any involvement by its troops so far but which warned it ``reserves the right'' to intervene.

Faced with the growing crisis, South African President Nelson Mandela called on Friday for a weekend regional summit to be held in the South African capital Pretoria.

Mandela's spokesman, ParksMankahlana said Kabila would take part, along with the heads of state of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The rest of the leaders had agreed in principle to attend, he added. But DRC government aide Victor Mpoyo told South African state television that the DRC government had lost faith in the mediation effort, charging that South Africa had three months ago given Rwanda ``50 tonnes of military hardware, which are being used now against us''. He ruled out talks with the rebels, saying ``never, never will we do that''.

Doubts were also expressed whether Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would attend the meet. However, Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told South Africa's SAPA news agency, ``For now we have no indication that there is such a development for the weekend.''