The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 18, the country's independent electoral commission announced late on Thursday.

The announcement came just two hours after President Joseph Kabila promulgated the electoral law.

"The first round of the presidential election and the legislative elections (just one round) will take place on June 18,2006," commission president Apollinaire Malu Malu told a news conference.

Under the electoral law, the DRC will subsequently launch provincial, municipal and local elections, the first democratic polls to be held in the country in more than four decades.

According to the schedule set by the electoral commission, presidential and parliamentary candidates should submit their application forms before March 23. The results of the first round of presidential elections will be published on July 14.

Earlier on Thursday, Interior Minister Mbemba Fundu said 270 parties in the country had registered in the elections.

The DRC, formerly Zaire, is rich in natural resources. But it is suffering from the aftermath of the 1998-2003 civil war which left nearly 4 million people dead.

Under the country's transitional constitution, the DRC should complete its first democratic general elections in 45 years by June 30.

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)