PRESIDENT Jakaya Kikwete has convened a meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation to discuss among other issues the war in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Mr Kikwete is the newly elected chairperson of the Troika Organ scheduled to meet in Dar es Salaam. A Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry statement released in the city said that in attendance will be other members of the Organ, including the SADC chairperson, President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique.

Others will be the Deputy Chair of the Organ - Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba and the immediate former chair, South African President Jacob Zuma. The statement said that the officials were expected to arrive in Dar es Salaam starting evening.

Mr Kikwete had observed in Maputo last month when assuming the Organ's leadership that the people in eastern DRC have suffered for too long, hence the need for SADC's immediate intervention.

Mutinous Congolese forces led by a renegade general, Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, have been battling the DRC government since April, this year.

Known as the M23, the rebel group has caused an upsurge in violence in the mineral rich eastern region of the DRC, destabilizing the region and damaging relations between the DRC and Rwanda, which the international community is accusing of arming the rebels.

Unconfirmed reports had it that DRC President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart, President Paul Kagame, are also expected to attend today's meeting.