President Nicolas Sarkozy will on Thursday try to carve out a peacemaking role for France in central Africa by urging the Democratic Republic of Congo to consider sharing its vast mineral resources with its neighbours.

Mr Sarkozy will hold talks with Joseph Kabila, the DRC president, in Kinshasa to persuade him to back a controversial plan to put mines in the east of the vast country under some form of supranational authority, with resources shared with neighbouring Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.