Congolese and Zambian experts on Thursday cut short talks in the DR Congo's southeastern mineral hub of Lubumbashi over a deadly border conflict, agreeing to resume them on September 1. With the interior and defence ministers of the two countries present, the experts said they supported an "amicable resolution" to the dispute, even while adjourning the talks that were to have cone on until Saturday. Fighting broke out in mid-March after Zambian soldiers occupied two villages in the DRC's Tanganyika province, leaving one soldier dead on each side. The experts said they hoped mediation by the regional Southern African Development Community would help prevent the displacement of local residents. A treaty signed in 1989 by DR Congo and Zambia resolved a dispute inherited from the colonial era concerning the delimitation of land and lake borders between Lake Mweru and Lake Tanganyika, a distance of about 200 kilometres (125 miles). Border clashes broke out nonetheless between the Zambian and Congolese armies in 1996, in 2006 and in September 2016. The disputed area is easily accessible from the Zambian side, but on the Congolese side access is made difficult by a swamp. lk-bmb/gd/ach