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LISBON - Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said on Friday his war-torn country was getting closer to peace, Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.

Dos Santos, who seldom speaks in public, said his government's military and political efforts and cooperation with the United Nations had "accelerated the advent of peace".

"The adverse factors, the forces that for some time were creating obstacles to a normal life, now have less capacity to do so," he said. "They are in decline."

Lusa said dos Santos spoke at a news conference in Luanda with Cape Verde Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves, who was ending a five-day visit.

Civil war has torn apart the oil-producing southwest African country since its independence from Portugal in 1975.

Fighting between the formerly Marxist government and rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) is estimated to have killed a million people.

A 1994 peace agreement, the Lusaka Protocol, collapsed three years ago and fighting resumed.

UNITA has warned the war will continue until the pact is renegotiated, but dos Santos' government has insisted that UNITA stick to the 1994 accord, which called for rebel disarmament and democratic elections.

But dos Santos said many parts of Angola were enjoying greater peace than they were two or three years ago and showing signs of progress such as construction and more traffic.

He rejected the possibility of autonomy for the oil-rich enclave of Cabinda, where some rebel groups are seeking independence.

"We define Angola as a unitary state," Lusa quoted him as saying.

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