Congo government, rebels want broad peace from talks

Congo's government and eastern rebels go into their first face-to-face talks tomorrow hoping to cement a fragile ceasefire and bring other armed groups on board.

Battle-hardened rebels led by renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda have repeatedly routed government forces in North Kivu province since late August, pushing President Joseph Kabila's government into reluctantly accepting direct talks in Kenya.

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) declared a ceasefire having arrived at the gates of the provincial capital, Goma, in late October.

However, sporadic clashes continue between Nkunda's fighters and the Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels, who roam a province rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and tin and often support Kabila's weak and chaotic army.

"What is important right now is that we have a generalised ceasefire. For the moment, there is only a ceasefire between the CNDP and the army," Congolese Foreign Minister Alexis Thambe Mwamba told Reuters on Saturday.

The need to consider other armed groups highlights the scale of the challenge in securing peace in a region where violence has simmered since Rwanda's 1994 genocide, when extremist Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus and then fled to Congo.

Mwamba announced that the government had agreed to talk with CNDP delegates in Nairobi tomorrow after meeting his Rwandan counterpart, Rosemary Museminali, on Friday.

Great Lakes neighbours Congo and Rwanda accuse each other of backing rebels hostile to their governments. Kigali has fought in two Congo wars since 1996, ostensibly to hunt Hutu forces.

But the ministers have agreed to a joint plan of operations to disband the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), some of whom took part in the genocide.

Nkunda has used the Hutu rebels as justification for his four-year rebellion of some 5,000 men.

"We want an engagement from the government and its allies. If the government can't convince its allies, the ceasefire will have little chance," said Jean-Michel Kambasu Ngeve, the second in command in Nkunda's rebel CNDP.

"This is perhaps the biggest step we can reach during these talks," he added.

Previous agreements to disband the FDLR and put an end to Nkunda's rebellion have failed. While Nkunda called for direct talks, Kabila had said he must return to a January 2008 peace process that also included other armed groups.

But the military defeats have left Kabila with few options.

Nkunda will not attend the Nairobi talks himself, Kambasu Ngeve said. The government has yet to name its delegation.