(Adds Mbeki comments, paragraph 3, details on deals) By Lubunga Bya'Ombe KINSHASA, Aug 21 (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, heading a delegation of more than a dozen ministers, signed deals with Congo on defence and infrastructure on Tuesday as the former Belgian colony rebuilds after historic elections. The visit was the first such high-level meeting between the two nations since Democratic Republic of Congo held its first democratic polls in more than four decades last year, meant to turn the page on a devastating 1998-2003 war. "We have to do everything we can so that Congo takes its rightful place at the head of the African Renaissance," Mbeki said at a news conference with Congo's President Joseph Kabila. Ahead of Mbeki's arrival, ministers from South Africa held meetings with their Congolese counterparts to finalise agreements including assistance with security sector reform and help rebuilding airports, railways and ports. After winning the elections last year, Kabila pledged a five-pillar effort to rebuild the vast, mineral-rich nation, focusing on infrastructure, defence, health, education and economic development. "After the elections and given that Congo is a post-conflict country, these deals are going to allow us to really get going with all the reconstruction efforts announced by the president," Congo's Foreign Ministry spokesman Claude Kamanga said. Decades of mismanagement under former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko combined with the war have left the infrastructure in Congo -- a country the size of Western Europe -- in ruins. Much of the rail network is unchanged since Belgium ceded independence in 1960, air travel is expensive and unsafe with all but one of dozens of registered airlines black-listed by the European Union, and there are few paved roads outside Kinshasa. The deals signed with South Africa included improving the hospital service, reforming the army and rehabilitating airports, ports and railways, officials said. GROWING INFLUENCE South Africa, a pariah across black Africa until the end of apartheid white rule in 1994, has ramped up its investment across the world's poorest continent in recent years. Mining companies, long a pillar of South Africa's economy, have spread out across Africa producing gold, copper, uranium and other minerals. Congo's large population and huge mineral reserves have proved a magnet for South African investment. Large blue billboards advertising South African mobile operator Vodacom dot the capital Kinshasa. The few supermarkets stock products like biltong (dried meat), beloved of the many South African businessmen and military personnel serving with the peacekeeping force in Congo, the United Nations' biggest. Tuesday's meeting was the fourth such "binational commission meeting" but South African and Congolese officials said it was particularly important coming after the transitional period which culminated in last year's elections. Congo's six-year war killed an estimated 4 million people, mainly through hunger and disease. Despite last year's polls, it is still plagued by violence at the hands of armed militias, foreign rebel groups and its own army, particularly in the eastern border region with Rwanda. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Goma)
