Nairobi/Goma - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband arrived in the violence-torn Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday evening, at the same time playing down prospects of British troops being sent to the country to back up UN peacekeepers.

Miliband arrived along with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, according to a report by the London-based Press Association, in a bid to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis in the east of the country.

Tehran - Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim arrived in Tehran on Saturday to prepare for the upcoming Iran-Brazil summit, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Amorim conveyed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the written approval of President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva for attending the summit in Tehran in the near future, without however setting a specific date.

"We welcome the visit of President Lula de Silva and hope that the summit will lead to strengthening of friendship between the two nations," Ahmadinejad told Amorim.

Johannesburg - A breakaway group of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) said Saturday evening that it aims to launch a new political party in Bloemfontein in December.

Former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa made the announcement at the conclusion of the ANC breakaway congress in Johannesburg, during which speakers accused the former liberation movement of reviving the "terrible legacy" of apartheid.

Beirut - The head of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah's international relations department Saturday accused Terje Roed- Larsen, UN Special Representative for the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, of siding with Israel against Lebanon.

Nawaf Mousawi charged that Roed-Larsen's "background and goals are well known, that he works to please the Israeli side by carrying their demands and presenting them as though they were requests urged by the international community

Beirut - Lebanese Energy and Water Minister Alan Tabourian said natural gas shipments to be used for electricity production, will begin to arrive from Egypt to Lebanon at the beginning of 2009, local Lebanese media reported Saturday.

"Egypt assured us that Lebanon will receive natural gas at the beginning of 2009 and would supply it until 2013," the Voice of Lebanon Radio station quoted the minister as saying.

The Lebanese government hopes to reduce the national energy bill by 30 percent by switching from oil to natural gas.

Riga - The foreign and domestic policies of the Russian government continued to receive a mauling in the Latvian capital, Riga, Saturday with a trio of presidents joining other political figures in criticism of the Kremlin at a NATO-sponsored conference.

President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia claimed former Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him "he would make us Northern Cyprus" long before territorial disputes in South Ossetia turned into armed conflict in August.