20091217

LUANDA (Reuters) - Angola accused the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday of changing their common land border, an area rich in oil and diamonds, and said it rejected the move.

Angola and the DRC have each been racked by decades of war, leading to confusion over the exact location of the border. A three-day meeting in Luanda of officials from both countries ended on Thursday with no immediate solution to the dispute.

"In regards to the border, the DRC authorities have made a unilateral change. That is an attitude that our government rejects," Emilio Guerra, Angola's Ambassador to the Congo, was cited by state-owned Jornal de Angola as saying on Thursday.

"We think the (border) delimitation cannot be made unilaterally. Both parties have to sit down."

The area boasts deposits of oil and diamonds. Hundreds of thousands of illegal Congolese diamond miners have been expelled from Angola, amid accusations of brutality. In October the Congo responded by deporting over 50,000 Angolans from its territory.

The DRC has accused Angolan troops of trespassing onto its territory and of brutality towards illegal Congolese miners in Angola. It has also recently accused Angola of stealing its oil from offshore oil wells near its coast.

OIL AT CENTRE OF DISPUTE

Relations between Angola and Congo have otherwise largely been cordial. Angola's emergence from decades of war has allowed the government to exploit the country's natural wealth in oil and diamonds. Congo also has vast mineral wealth but it has been less successfully exploited.