KINSHASA, May 12: The Zairean rebel alliance that has taken over most of Zaire will not deal with Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo, who was elected on Saturday to the vacant post of Speaker of the interim parliament, a top rebel official said on Sunday.

Monsengwo would be in line to take over as head of state under the 1994 Zairean Constitution if President Mobutu Sese Seko were to step down.

Rebel ``foreign minister'' Bizima Karaha told a press conference in the eastern town of Lubumbashi yesterday that if the Archbishop, who has not decided whether to accept the post, does so, he would bear full responsibility for any bloodbath in Kinshasa.

Rebel forces are closing on Kinshasa and have claimed to be just 40 miles away from the city.

Monsengwo, who was flying to Kinshasa after being elected at the weekend as speaker of Zaire's transitional parliament, said on Sunday that he had not yet decided whether to take up the task.

Monsengwo said he wanted a package of national and international guarantees, as well as approval from the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church in Zaire, before he accepted the post.

The rebel alliance insists that its leader, Laurent Kabila, must replace Mobutu as head of state ahead of elections.

Kabila and Mobutu over the weekend both agreed to meet on a South African ship Off Congo on Wednesday for what would appear to be a last chance to have an ordered hand over of power in Kinshasa, following inconclusive talks last week. Sources in this southern rebel stronghold say that the rebels have been hampered by lack of fuel after nationalising the railway operating company here last Monday, causing Zambia to halt all rail traffic over the border.

Karaha said the rebels ``crushed'' the enemy troops around Kenge on Saturday. He said they were all ex-Unita and ex-Rwandan Hutu Army soldiers and captured their boats on the Kwango River.

US Ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, who helped bring Mobutu and Kabila together on May 4, said the jury was still out on Kabila's democratic credentials.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.