United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the two leading candidates in Congo's presidential elections to meet and put an end to the recent violence, a spokesman said in United Nations Tuesday.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric quoted reports by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations that relative calm has been restored in the capital Kinshasa after Monday's violent incidents between supporters of President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean Pierre Bemba.

He said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, William Lacy Swing, and a dozen members of the Committee in Support of the Transition were meeting inside when shooting occurred between supporters of President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba.
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Secretary-General Annan phoned the two candidates to demand an immediate end to the violence, as well as the safe evacuation of the diplomats and civilian personnel trapped inside the residence, according to the spokesman.

"The Secretary-General urged both Kabila and Bemba to meet immediately to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner," said Dujarric.

Some 150 UN peacekeepers in armored personnel carriers brought Special Representative William Swing and the other officials to safety, Dujarric said, adding that UN and European Union peacekeepers later deployed to Bemba's residence and elsewhere in Kinshasa to ensure public order and safety.

Meanwhile, Swing continued his efforts to broker peaceful talks between the parties to help secure an agreement to stop the shooting.

According to provisional results of last month's elections released by UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, Kabila won 45 percent of the vote, while Bemba garnered 20percent. The two candidates are scheduled to face off in a second round on Oct. 29.

The historic parliamentary and presidential elections on July 30 were the war-torn country's first since the former Zaire won independence from Belgium 46 years ago.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)