Kinshasa, 26 March-(ANA)-French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged a "new momentum" on co-operation in Africa's troubled Great Lakes region, in a speech to Congolese MPs.
Addressing parliament in Kinshasa, he also praised Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila's joint operation with Rwanda against rebels.
The region has been plagued by rival militias for more than a decade.
During his two-day African tour, Mr Sarkozy will also visit the Republic of Congo and Niger, ex-French colonies.
He is joined by French ministers and business executives seeking contracts in various sectors, including mining, telecommunications and infrastructure.
Addressing the national assembly in the first visit by a French president to the former Belgian colony in a quarter of a century, Mr Sarkozy suggested Kinshasa and its Great Lakes neighbours work together for mutual benefit.
"In the east, it seems to me more necessary than ever to generate projects which unite," he said, reported AFP news agency.
"Why not give a new momentum to what already exists... and why not take it further?"
Preparations for the visit were overshadowed by comments Mr Sarkozy made in January when he suggested DR Congo share its mineral wealth with Rwanda as a way to end violence around the main eastern city of Goma.
The idea triggered uproar with the Congolese media accusing Paris of seeking a "Balkanisation" of the country and trying to use DR Congo's mineral wealth to help mend its ties with Rwanda.
Paris and Kigali have been at loggerheads for years over who is to blame for Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which some 800,000 people were slaughtered. (ANA)
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