Rebels, army battle as Congo fight spreads: UN

A fragile ceasefire in Congo appeared to be collapsing Thursdayas battles between followers of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and the army spread to another town in theeastern part of the volatile country, the United Nations said.

The latest fighting took place in the town of Nyanzale in North Kivu province, said UN peacekeeping spokesman Madnoje Mounoubai.

He said the army abandoned its positions "and a large number of displaced also fled the combat" and sought shelterat a UN base nearby.

Rebel leader Nkunda told the Associated Press that army forces backed by pro-government militias attacked rebel positions before dawn in Nyanzale.

"We were attacked three times this morning," he said, speaking from behind rebel lines west of Kiwanja. "My soldiers have a right to defend themselves."

Meanwhile, UN peacekeepers also found bodies of a dozen male civilians in the eastern Congo village of Kiwanja, Thursday.

The village was occupied by Tutsi rebels loyal to Nkunda. They drove out the pro-government Mai-Mai militia on Wednesday, sending its inhabitants fleeing in panic.

At least a dozen bodies of adult males were visible among the mud-walled and tin-roofed homes, a few of them burned, apparently hit by rockets or grenades.There were neither uniforms nor weapons to indicate the dead had been fighters.

He said the army had also taken part in fighting Saturday in two other towns in the region, Mweso and Kashuga.

Reiteratinghis threat to march tothecapital Kinshasa, Nkunda said, "This is a treasonous government that is betraying the people of Congo and that is why we will continue to fight until we reach Kinshasa."

Ceasefire unravels amid fighting near Goma

The violence dealt another blow to a fragile unilateral ceasefire Nkunda declared Oct. 29 as his fighters reached the outskirts of the main provincial city of Goma, suddenly halting a lightning advance that forced Congo's army into a humiliating retreat.

Nkunda had already accused the army of firing mortars toward rebel positions from behind militia lines during battles Tuesday and Wednesday around Kiwanja, about70 km north of Goma,forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

Low-level fighting has gone on in Congo for years, but clashes intensified in August and have since driven about 250,000 people from their homes.

Nkunda is demanding direct negotiations with President Joseph Kabila's government, which says it will meet with all militia groups in the region, not just with Nkunda.

Dozens of militia groups operatein eastern Congo, a lawless region that the government and a 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission, the largest ever to be deployed to one country,have struggled to bring under control for years.

Among the armed groups are pro-government militias known as the Mai Mai, and ethnic Hutu insurgents from Rwanda who fled to Congo after helping carry out Rwanda's bloody 1994 genocide.

Summit planned for Friday

Kabila, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are to attend a UN-backed African Union summit expected on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kagame is believed to wield strong influence over Nkunda's Tutsi-led rebels.

Ban said Wednesday he would "sit down together with President Kabila and President Kagame and encourage them to find a path to peace."

Asked whether he would encourage Kabila to open a direct dialogue with Nkunda, Ban said: "I will certainly encourage him to engage in dialogue with whoever, including Nkunda. I will discuss this matter with President Kabila."

The conflict in eastern Congo is fuelled by festering ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda, and Congo's civil wars from 1996-2002, which drew neighbouring countries in a rush to plunder Congo's mineral wealth.

Nkunda, who defected from Congo's army in 2004, claims the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter a half-million Rwandan Tutsis.