Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said on Sunday he wanted ceasefire talks with the DR Congo government after a meeting with UN peace envoy Olusegun Obasanjo.

"Today is a great day for us because we were losing many men and now we have a message of peace. We should work with this mission," Nkunda said after meeting the former Nigerian president in rebel-held territory in eastern DR Congo.

"We agreed to open humanitarian corridors to support the process," he added.

Obasanjo's groundbreaking meeting with Nkunda came as UN officials warned that the plight of an estimated 250 000 people displaced by continuing fighting was becoming increasingly desperate.

It was unclear whether Nkunda was referring to losses among his rebel forces or on both sides, after weeks of combat during which he has seized control of much of Nord-Kivu.

Obasanjo said after the talks, held in this village near the Rwandan border: "I know now what he wants. I know that a ceasefire is like dancing tango: it cannot be done by one only."

The government of President Joseph Kabila has to date rejected Nkunda's call for direct negotiations.

Fresh clashes

The meeting took place amid fresh fighting, as rebels and government forces clashed early Sunday about 60 kilometres to the north, near the strategic town of Kanyabayonga, the UN Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) said. The fighting continued into the afternoon after a brief lull, with rebels replying to government artillery barrages with rockets 20 kilometres southeast of Rwindi, MONUC spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said. Obasanjo's talks with Nkunda are particularly significant because none of the various foreign ministers and envoys who visited the country in recent weeks have officially met the rebel leader. The Nigerian, appointed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon last week, arrived in the country on Friday and has already met Kabila and other senior officials, including ambassadors from countries that are members of the UN Security Council. The UN envoy met Nkunda at 10:00 am (0800 GMT) in the rebel-held territory of Jomba, which lies near DR Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda, 80 kilometres northeast of Goma. He arrived at Jomba by helicopter from Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu province. The two men shook hands warmly when they met. Nkunda once belonged in the army

Nkunda, who was a general in the Congolese army before turning against the government, had changed out of his military uniform into a light grey suit with a white shirt and red tie. Obasanjo was in traditional Nigerian dress. The former Nigerian president, who was also once a general, briefly inspected Nkunda's soldiers before the two men walked hand-in-hand into a small building to begin their talks. Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesman for the Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) blamed the government forces for the latest clashes, saying they had opened fire with long-range artillery and tanks around 4:00 am (0200 GMT). MONUC, which had sent out "a substantial patrol with armoured vehicles," was treating six wounded government soldiers, said Dietrich. Rebels advanced towards Kanyabayonga at the beginning of the week, as UN officials reported that some government troops there had gone on the rampage, raping civilians and looting. In Kinshasha, the army chief of staff issued a statement Sunday saying that police had arrested most of the soldiers responsible and returned the looted property to their owners. Those responsible would soon appear before a court martial in Goma and would be severely punished, the statement added. Military presence reinforced

Both MONUC and the government have recently reinforced their military presence in Kanyabayonga. But aid officials have warned that the continuing fighting was making it next to impossible for them to reach displaced people in Nord-Kivu. Christophe Illemassene, head spokesman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Kinshasa (OCHA), spoke of "black holes" in the province where they could not reach civilians caught up in the fighting. "We've got enough aid, but now the problem is access," he said. Their work was complicated by the fact that aid workers themselves were being targetted: the OCHA reported 21 attacks on aid workers in Nord-Kivu since the fighting resumed. Nkunda says he is defending local Tutsis against the Interahamwe, a Rwandan Hutu militia, some of whom have been implicated in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in neighbouring Rwanda. He has threatened to topple Kabila's government unless he is granted face-to-face negotiations with the president.