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Call on Kigali to help stop DRC war

LONDON - Britain has called on Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese rebels led by General Laurent Nkunda to end the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

LONDON - Britain has called on Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese rebels led by General Laurent Nkunda to end the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

But British foreign minister Mark Malloch-Brown, who is in Kigali after three days in DR Congo, said he would not "fall into the trap of believing that somehow this rebel group is just a puppet group whose strings are pulled from Kigali.

"One has to get to the roots in the Congo itself and not believe that somehow the solution just lies here in Kigali," he told the BBC.

Ahead of a meeting with Kagame in Kigali, he said he would ask the Rwandan leader "to use his influence on the rebel movement".

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People has clashed with Congolese government forces and their proxies in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu since August, displacing 250000 people.

On Wednesday Nkunda's rebel group withdrew from two key battle fronts but threatened to return if government forces occupied the zones.

But fresh fighting was reported yesterday between a pro-government militia and rebels.

Malloch-Brown said the "shadow" of the 1994 genocide, in which the UN says 800000 people were killed, "hangs over everything we do in Congo." - Sapa-AFP

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