Government forces battled attackers at military installations and a TV station in Congo's capital Kinshasha yesterday in what diplomats called a coup attempt against President Joseph Kabila. The government said the situation was under control.

　　Fighters loyal to the late Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko were among those behind the attempt, British Ambassador Jim Atkinson told The Associated Press.

　　The coup attempt woke Congo's capital before dawn, leading to four hours of gunfire. By late morning, shooting had eased, with attackers apparently contained by loyalist troops.

　　Congo government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said the gunmen attacked simultaneously at several military posts and a private television station, killing one loyalist soldier and wounding two others.

　　"We have the situation under control," Kamerhe said. "There have been arrests in the assailants' ranks and we've taken some arms and ammunition."

　　Diplomats believed the attempt was at least in part the work of soldiers loyal to Mobutu, Congo's Cold War ruler.

　　Thousands of Mobutu's soldiers fled across the Congo River to Brazzaville, capital of neighboring Republic of Congo, after Mobutu was ousted in 1997.

　　"They've infiltrated into Kinshasa with weapons, presumably over the past days and weeks," Atkinson, the British diplomat said. "This morning they began attacking at various places."

　　Shooting was heard around Kinshasa's Congo River port, directly across from Brazzaville. A Congo army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of the attackers had come from Brazzavile overnight, passing by a security post where Congolese soldiers were sleeping while on duty.

　　The officer spoke in front of an office building that was surrounded by about 100 soldiers. Security forces believed some of the attackers were inside.

　　The building was near the US Embassy and the headquarters of the UN mission in Congo. Residents said shooting had been heavy in the area during the fighting.

　　By late morning, with fighting subsiding elsewhere, a standoff appeared to be continuing between the attackers and loyalists in one part of the city, Atkinson said.

　　Congo, Africa's third-largest country, is emerging from five years of war that killed more than 3 million people.

　　Kabila heads a power-sharing government under peace deals that ended the fighting. He has been in power since January 2001, when bodyguards assassinated then-ruler Laurent Kabila, Joseph's father.

　　Kabila was in the country, although his exact whereabouts yesterday were not immediately known. Atkinson said, "I have it on good authority that he's safe."

　　(The Associated Press)