A EUROPEAN Union delegation headed by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel on Tuesday headed for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for a regional tour to promote peace. The team will “sound out the rival parties on the prospects for progress on outstanding issues in the Lusaka process and the Arusha process” — meaning peace pacts for the DRC and for Burundi — a government statement said. Angola and Zimbabwe, together with Namibia, deployed troops to back the DRC government after a rebel insurgency was launched in August 1998 with military support from Rwanda and Uganda. The belligerent parties signed a peace pact in Lusaka a year later, which has led this year to a UN peacekeeping deployment and the withdrawal of rival troops from the front lines. However, a key part of the peace process is an “inter-Congolese dialogue” among rival parties inside the DRC, which is intended to lead to the setting up of a transitional government. – AFP