WASHINGTON. June 5: The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Laurent Kabila, has promised to hold multiparty elections within two years, a group of congressional lawmakers said here Wednesday, reports AFP.

"Kabila assured us he would hold democratic elections with "real political parties within two years," said California representative Ed Royce, president of the house subcommittee on African affairs,

"This was reassuring since Kabila has banned virtually all political parties."' Royce, just returned from a week-long visit to Africa, said in a news release.

Royce said Kabila, who ousted Mobutu Sese Seko from the country he had ruled for nearly 30 years as Zaire, "had concerns atxiut the divisionness of political parties'" in the chaotic Central African country.

Kabila spoke to a US congressional delegation in Harare. Zimbabwe where he was attending the annual meeting of the Organisation of African Unity,

Royce said Kabila asked for US aid in drawing up a new constitution for the impoverished country while the Americans expressed to him their "concerns about the treatment of refugees in eastern Congo.'