Talks have broken down at the African Union summit in Ethiopia on plans to solve the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
A spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, announced on Monday at the summit room that the signing ceremony in Addis Ababa had been cancelled.
Reporting from the city, James Bays, Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor, said that the talks would continue in private between various heads of state at another location in the city and not at the African Union building.
"At the last minute, Ban Ki Moon's spokesman came into the room and said 'it's all off for now', 'they cannot reach an agreement', 'we do not have a signing ceremony for you'," added Bays.
Seraphin Ngwej, the special envoy from the DRC told Al Jazeera "that there will be no agreement today" and that he was not hopeful that anything would be resolved during this meeting in Addis Ababa.
Ngwej added that bilateral negotiations will continue "outside the AU", and that he hoped for negotiations "within one month".
He also stated that Tanzania and South Africa, were the main objecters to the deal, because they had concerns over details of the plan.
Tanzanian and South African delegates were not immediately available for comment.
UN officials have said that they were dissappointed with this decision.
Leaders were expected to discuss the recent unrest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where M23 rebels took over the key town of Goma before pulling out.
Last week, the UN proposed a plan to to expand its peace mission in the DRC, creating a new special intervention brigade, comprising between 2,000 and 2,500 troops to work alongside existing peacekeeping troops.
On Friday, a group called "eight plus one", which includes the DR Congo, regional countries and the UN, had committed to a peace plan which was the key discussion in today's summit.
"It was a detailed plan, [and] they had distributed the text," said Bays.
"It looked like it was very close to be finalised, [but] there is now clearly some sticking point from, we're told, a number of countries."
The peace plan hopes to end perennial insecurity in the eastern parts of the country, which has been controlled by M23 rebels.
