(BBC)- - Voting has opened for a new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in one of Africa's most significant elections for many years.
President Joseph Kabila, who came to power after his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, is facing former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba.

The UN-backed election is intended to crown a peace process that ended five bloody years of civil war in 2003.

Correspondents say the outcome could shape the future for much of Africa.

Sunday's run-off will conclude the DRC's first fully democratic polls since independence in 1960 and is aimed at restoring peace to one of Africa's largest and most turbulent states.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Kinshasa says it is impossible to exaggerate how the destiny of DR Congo could shape the future of Africa.
Nine African states border the country and all were affected by the wars caused by the long lack of real government in DR Congo, the power vacuum at the heart of Africa, he says.

UN officials say the polls are the most important on the continent since the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela that ended apartheid in South Africa.

However, our correspondent says the candidates are not Nelson Mandelas and neither of them has a good record of being a democrat.

Mr Kabila has strong support in the east of Congo; Mr Bemba is popular in the west.

This political split across the geography of a vast nation is the same split that in the past led to a war in which four million people are estimated to have died, our correspondent adds.

'Tense but manageable'

Mr Kabila won first round polls on 30 July, but fell just short of the 50% needed for outright victory.

At least 23 were killed in armed clashes between the two men's security forces in Kinshasa after the results were announced.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on the two candidates to ensure that the election is peaceful. Both men have promised to urge their supporters against violence and to abide by election rules.

A UN official in Kinshasa has described the situation as "tense but manageable".

Extra UN peacekeeping troops are on standby in the east of the country. In the capital, Kinshasa, the UN is being backed up by a special European Union military force.