South African President Kgalema Montlanthe will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo next week for talks with his counterpart Joseph Kabila, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

Montlanthe will meet Kabila on 30 October as part of a mixed bilateral commission, foreign ministry spokesperson Claude Kamanga told AFP.

Montlanthe, who succeeded Thabo Mbeki as South African president last month, will be making his first visit to the DRC.

The last meeting of the mixed commission was held in April in Pretoria, when Kabila met Mbeki.

Since Kabila's election in the DRC's first democratic vote in 2006, the two countries have strengthened their military cooperation, signing in August last year an agreement under which Pretoria will assist in the reform of Kinshasa's armed forces.

Pretoria is also providing assistance in the energy sector, South African company MagEnergy overseeing the renovation of turbines at the Inga hydro-electric dam in western DRC.

Once the restoration is complete, the Inga plant will have the potential to produce almost 40 000 megawatts of power, enough to provide electricity to the entire southern African region.

AFP