The main pages of today's newspapers are devoted to the awaited nomination of the new government in the DR Congo.

Regarded for days as imminent, the nomination of the first government of the Third Republic has yet to happen. According to Le Palmarès, the awaited nomination is unlikely to happen until "next week". Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga is experiencing difficulties examining "cases of candidates for ministerial posts who have once been accused [of corruption] but [continue to be] presumed innocent". Above all Mr Gizenga is confronted with "the management of [some candidates'] excessive ambitions". To illustrate this, this paper reports that "in a letter, Nzanga Mobutu [who supported Joseph Kabila's successful bid for President] demands insistingly that he should be named Minister of State for Foreign Affairs enjoying the rank [or status] of Deputy Prime Minister...[Other candidates including] Alain Futa, Lambert Mend and Olivier are each demanding also to be appointed Minister of State".

According to Le Potentiel, the apportioning of ministerial posts could "negatively impact the Presidential Majority Alliance in which opinions are divided and discontent increases with every passing day." The raison is that "in the proposed government's composition which has yet to be confirmed, [these three parties] PPRD, PALU and MSR, would take the lion's share [of the posts]. PPRD alone would get "8 ministerial posts, as follows: Interior, State-Owned Enterprises, Post and Telecommunications, Primary and Secondary Education, Energy, Labour and Social Insurance, Women's Condition and Family and a Minister of State...while PALU [would receive] 4 Ministries, as follows: Mines, Budget, Health, and Justice...and MSR [would get] 4 Ministries: Public Works and Country Planning, Town Planning, Public Service, and Social Affairs."

The Ministries of Defence, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Information would be "left to the disposition of the President of the Republic", Le Potentiel notes. It adds that three other political parties "PDC, the forces du Renouveau and UDEMO feel neglected and cheated" in this distribution of ministerial posts. Thus, these political groups "are considering creating within the National Assembly a new bloc called the Centre Bloc and comprising 80 members, in a move that would mark a split within AMP [Presidential Majority Alliance]," according to Le Potentiel.

In other news, Le Phare reports that "a [peace] deal has been reached between the FARDC [Congolese army] and [the dissident general] Laurent Nkunda". Under the deal, "Nkunda would go into exile while his forces would be re-integrated into the national army [FARDC]," according to this paper.