The few newspapers appearing in Kinshasa this Wednesday devote their main pages to the current consultations for the formation of the new government in the DR Congo.

"In the face of a lack of merit-qualifying candidates for ministerial posts, [Prime Minister Antoine] Gizenga has to cut his coat according to his cloth," writes La Tempête des Tropiques, saying "more than 90 percent of the applications received should be turned down because the candidates fail to meet the [qualifying] criteria set forth by Joseph Kabila, namely, competence, uprightness and national representativity."

"Etienne Tshisekedi's [opposition] party, UDPS [Union for Democracy and Social Progress] is not going to participate in the Gizenga government," notes La Tempête des Tropiques, explaining that "[UDPS] on 28 December 2006 issued a statement denying rumours about its [alleged] participation the government in the making"

In an editorial headlined "The torment," La Référence Plus writes: "The President of the Republic and the Prime Minister are currently subjected to torment, day and night, so long as the government is not formed and its composition announced. Who to include [in the government team] and who not to, and for what efficiency? The equation is difficult to resolve."

In other news, La Référence Plus, citing the United Nations Radio Okapi, reports "bloody clashes between the FARDC [DRC armed forces] and local militia in the northeastern Ituri district", saying that "in the early morning hours, rounds of gunfire were heard in the vicinity of Fataki airport"