Democratic Republic of Congo's interior minister has told Angola that its mass expulsions of tens of thousands of Congolese was causing mayhem and appealed for cooperation.

"The mass return of our compatriots caught us off guard," said DRC's Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba late Tuesday following talks with Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Miranda.

"Congo does not have the necessary logistics to accomodate these people repatriated from Angola," said Mbemba.

Angolan authorities have rounded up more than 60 000 foreigners, most of them Congolese and some west Africans, over the past four months during joint army and police operations to crack down on diamond trafficking by foreigners.

The expulsions peaked in early April with a daily influx of about 2 500 people into regions of DRC, where water, food and housing are scarce, according to UN relief officials.

Around 40 000 returnees have been registered in DRC since the beginning of April, the United Nations has said.

DRC is still struggling to emerge from a five-year war, which drew in six other African nations at its height, including Angola, and claimed some 2,5-million lives, either directly in combat or through disease and hunger.

The war, which crippled the vast central African country's economy and infrastructure, formally ended in April last year with the signing of a peace pact.

The government of the DRC "has come to request our understanding so that these operations take place through bilateral cooperation to avoid constraints," said the Angolan foreign minister.

UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland warned in New York on Monday that the mass expulsions could lead to a humanitarian crisis.

"While a state has a legitimate right to control who lives or works within its borders, returns of migrant workers must be done without jeopardising people's physical safety and dignity," Egeland said.

Mbemba said that 40 000 Congolese nationals had arrived in Western Kasai and an additional 18 000 in Bandundu, which both border Angola to the north, adding that "these numbers of people are not easy to accomodate."

The crackdown centered on the northern and southern Lunda provinces as well as Malange and southern Kwanza. Some 1,000 Congolese have also been expelled from Cabinda and 2,000 others from Zaire province in the north for illegal entry into the country, the immigration and border control services said.

A Roman Catholic priest from Cafumfu in northern Lunda province told Radio Ecclesia that the deportees were forced to walk dozens of kilometers to reach assembly points set up by the Angolan authorities.

"Pregnant women gave birth along the way," the priest was quoted as saying.

Radio Ecclesia, a Roman Catholic station, also said that several Congolese died in the rivers in northern Lunda.

The foreign minister noted that "Angola had informed the ambassadors of the countries concerned that these foreigners were engaged in activities deemed harmful to the Angolan economy, notably diamond exploitation." - Sapa-AFP.