UN Security Council meets on DR Congo vote

France requested the meeting after the European Union and the African Union urged DR Congo authorities to respect the outcome of the polling held on Sunday.

Election results were initially scheduled to be released on Sunday but could be delayed.

Western powers hope sub-Saharan Africa's biggest country will see its first peaceful change of the presidency since independence in 1960.

President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, did not run in the elections. A total of 21 candidates including Kabila's handpicked successor, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, are vying for the presidency.

The DR Congo's influential Catholic Church, which had deployed thousands of election observers, declared on Thursday that it knew who had won from its own monitoring.

The National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) urged election authorities to publish results "in keeping with truth and justice."

On Thursday, the United States called on the DRC to release "accurate" results and warned of sanctions against election violators.

South African Ambassador Jerry Matjila told reporters ahead of the meeting that the world must "be very, very patient" while vote-counting is underway.

Matjila, whose country is a leading member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that includes the DR Congo, appeared to downplay CENCO's statement.

"The NGO can say what they say," but South Africa "will wait... for those responsible for the elections to announce" the result, he said.

Council members were to hear a report from Leila Zerrougui, who heads the UN mission in DR Congo, during the closed-door meeting.