Leaders from eastern and southern Africa have called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed rebels are threatening to overthrow the Congolese government.

Leaders of Eastern and Southern African regional blocs met for an unprecedented joint summit on Saturday to find a solution to a conflict in eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed rebels’ rapid advance since January has fanned fears of a wider war.

Kosovo's ruling Vetevendosje party is on track to come first in a parliamentary election on Sunday, but it will need to negotiate a coalition with other parties to form a government, an exit poll showed.

Regional leaders call on all warring parties - including the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels - to meet within five days.

African leaders asked defense chiefs for a road map to end the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their emergency talks in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea come as the long-running crisis escalates.

The government has previously refused to negotiate. But with rebels seizing another major town, a deal is the only way to prevent more deaths.

Around 3,000 people have been killed in clashes between M23 rebels and government forces, and thousands more have been displaced after the worst escalation of fighting in more than a decade.

Leaders from Eastern and Southern African regional blocs gather in Tanzania on Saturday to seek a solution to the conflict in eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed rebels have seized a major city in the worst escalation of fighting in more than a decade.

Leaders at an unprecedented joint summit of Eastern and Southern African regional blocs stressed on Saturday the urgency of finding a way out of the crisis in eastern Congo, where Rwanda-backed rebels' rapid advance has fanned fears of a wider war.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi joined a summit in Tanzania on Saturday where regional leaders called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Democratic Republ