Sept 3 (Reuters) - Angola holds its first national vote for 16 years on Sept. 5 as the oil-producing former Portuguese colony recovers from a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.
Following is a chronology on Angola:
1975 - The last Portuguese forces withdraw, leaving the Soviet and Cuban backed Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in control of Luanda.
1976 - The MPLA crushes the rival FNLA (National Liberation Front of Angola) and drives back the South African supported UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola).
1979 - MPLA leader Agostinho Neto dies, replaced by Soviet-trained Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
1987 - South African force enters southeast Angola to thwart MPLA and Cuban offensive against Jonas Savimbi's UNITA. They withdrew the next year.
1989 - Dos Santos and Savimbi agree on a ceasefire, but it collapses within two months.
1991 - Dos Santos, Savimbi sign peace accord in Lisbon.
1992 - United Nations monitors multiparty polls for president and national assembly. UNITA accuses government of fraud after MPLA wins both votes. Fighting flares again.
1994 - Government and UNITA sign Lusaka Protocol peace accord in Zambia.
1998 - UNITA declares its effective demobilisation and Angola legalises the rebel movement, but the government launches an offensive which lasts for four years.
2002 - Savimbi is killed in battle in February and a formal ceasefire is signed in April.
2008 - Angola's rapidly expanding oil output puts it neck and neck with Nigeria's as the biggest producer on the continent.
Sept. 5, 2008 - Legislative elections. Presidential elections are expected to take place in 2009. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)
