Rebels said on Monday they had seized new territory in eastern DR Congo and threatened fresh attacks on government troops, as President Joseph Kabila sacked the chief of the struggling military.

A day after renegade general Laurent Nkunda said he wanted peace talks, his spokesperson said the rebels had repelled the Democratic Republic of Congo army in the latest fighting and now controlled all the area around the town of Rwindi.

"Our troops control all of the Rwindi zone" in eastern Nord Kivu province, Nkunda spokesperson Bertrand Bisimwa told AFP.

Violated ceasefire?

The UN's peacekeeping mission, Monuc said the rebels had violated their own ceasefire in launching Sunday's attacks, in which peacekeepers found themselves caught in crossfire. One Indian peacekeeper was reported wounded.

The rebels insist they have respected the ceasefire they declared on 29 October and that any clashes have come as a response to attacks by government forces.

Monuc said on Monday that rebel forces had shown "restraint" in the face of provocative firing by government forces around Rwindi, but that Sunday's fighting was a clear breach of the ceasefire.

"Monuc condemns these violations on the ground and invites the parties to respect the ceasefire so as not to further worsen the humanitarian situation," it said.

Aid agencies are concerned that the continued fighting is making the plight of an estimated 250 000 displaced people in eastern Congo increasingly desperate.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 18 other rights groups urged the UN's Human Rights Council to convene a special session on the crisis.

"Everything possible should be done to prevent a further deterioration of an already dire situation," they said in a letter to council president Martin Uhomoibi.

Sentenced to life in prison

A military court in Goma sentenced four government soldiers to life in prison on Monday, after government forces went on a rampage of looting as they fled advancing rebels north of the regional capital Goma last month.

One of the four was jailed for rape, the others for deserting their posts and embarking on a looting spree. A fifth soldier was sentenced to six months for wounding a civilian. Three others accused of looting were acquitted.

With the army losing territory to the rebels and accused of committing crimes, Kabila sacked military chief Dieudonne Kayembe and replaced him with the head of the navy.

"Given the necessity and the urgency (of the current conflict), General Didier Etumba Longomba has been named chief of staff," according to a presidential order read out by broadcasters.

Kabila also ordered the creation of a new agency to oversee contracts with Chinese companies, which have heavily invested in DR Congo, from mining to the construction of roads, homes and hospitals.

In his talks with a UN special envoy on Sunday, Nkunda included among his demands a requirement that the government review contracts with Chinese companies, according to a UN memo on the meeting obtained by AFP.

Negotiating a ceasefire

After the talks with former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, Nkunda said he wanted to negotiate a ceasefire with the government.

Obasanjo, appointed by UN chief Ban Ki-moon earlier this month as a peace envoy for Congo, said Nkunda wants international guarantees that his forces can integrate into the national army.

"He is talking about the integration of his soldiers into the national army and he is even ready to continue serving in the army, a career he loves," Obasanjo told reporters in Nairobi a day after meeting Nkunda deep inside rebel-held territory.

In an interview broadcast on Monday, Obasanjo insisted Nkunda was someone he could do business with but said his mediation efforts could not be expected to yield instant results.

"I believe he's a reasonable man that can listen and react to persuasion," he told the BBC.

He also played down expectations of immediate results following his visit.

"You don't come on one visit and bring about solution to a problem that has been there since 1960," he said.

"That problem is still here today and you think that one visit will solve it? Anyone who would bring that about would be God."

AFP