Laurent Nkunda's rebel forces and pro-government Mai Mai militia clashed for the second day running on Wednesday in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sources on both sides said.

Nkunda's men had "opened the hostilities this morning in response to yesterday's (Tuesday's) fighting," Didier Bitaki, the spokesperson for the Mai Mai, told AFP. "They are trying to retake lost positions," he added.

A military source with Monuc, the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP fighting had resumed at around 5:00am (0300 GMT).

"The situation is very fluid on the ground and changes from hour to hour," the source added. "The rebels gain ground — an hour later they lose it again."

Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesperson for Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) spoke of an ongoing operation around Kiwanja, five kilometres north of Rutshuru, the scene of fighting on Tuesday.

"The Mai Mai and their allies have adopted a strategy of infiltration into the population," he told AFP.

"They were pushed back (Tuesday) and they came back in civilian clothing to take weapons from local residents," he added.

"We have sealed off Kiwanja and we are cleaning up house by house. It's a very difficult operation because the adversary is mixed in with the population.

"When we approach a house where they are hiding they shoot at our soldiers, who return fire."

Mai Mai spokesperson Bitaki said the fighting had resumed at 4:00am near the general hospital of the town of Rutshuru, 75 kilometres from Goma.

But an AFP correspondent in Rutshuru said the situation was calm there mid-morning, with the shops open and rebel soldiers posted at different points of the town.

The Mai Mai are local militia set up to defend their territory and come from different ethnic groups.

They accuse Nkunda's rebels of being supported by the Tutsi-dominated regime in neighbouring Rwanda, a charge that Rwanda has always denied.

The two sides clashed around Kiwanja for several hours, on Tuesday, the first fighting since rebel leader Nkunda declared a unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday last week.

Nkunda's forces made significant gains in fighting last month, driving government troops out of the northern part of Nord-Kivu province and seizing key towns including Rutshuru.

For a week now, his troops have been positioned about 15 kilometres from the regional capital Goma.

Tuesday's fighting forced aid workers and UN agencies to suspend their activities in the region and pull out, just a day after having resumed work in the rebel-held territory.

Concern is growing for the plight of more than a million people who have now been forced to flee their homes.

The United Nations Children's Fund said on Monday that last week's fighting alone had driven up to 100 000 civilian from their homes or from camps for displaced people — including an estimated 60 000 children.

AFP