Congo rebels say will withdraw from Goma

No sign of pull-out

The conflicting statements indicated a solution to the insurgency in eastern Congo, which has displaced 140,000 civilians according to the United Nations, was not close.

Lambert Mende, Congo's government spokesman, said the pullback was expected to take until Friday but that it was too early to say if it would definitely happen.

"We prefer to wait, these are not people who keep to their word," he told Reuters by telephone from the capital Kinshasa.

Ugandan military chief Aronda Nyakayirima told journalists in Kampala the plan specified M23 would begin its withdrawal on Tuesday. Government troops would enter Goma two days later, followed by a visit by regional defence chiefs "to evaluate the situation and find out whether all these timelines were met".

No rebel soldiers were visible in Goma on Tuesday evening.

"We haven't yet seen any significant troop movements out of the city," Hiroute Guebre Selassie, head of the UN mission in Congo MONUSCO's North Kivu office, told Reuters.

African leaders had at the weekend called on M23 to abandon their aim of toppling the government and to withdraw from Goma.

The Great Lakes heads of state also proposed that UN peacekeepers in and around the city should provide security in a neutral zone between Goma and new areas seized by M23.

Potential to escalate

In a potential further escalation, Rwanda said on Tuesday its troops clashed with Rwandan FDLR rebels who attacked three villages on its border with Congo.

FDLR spokesman La Forge Fils Bazeye said on Tuesday evening that his fighters had attacked Rwandan army positions on the border north of Goma.

"I want to confirm the clashes between our fighters and the Rwandan army, some of our fighters are still there, the fight continues," he told Reuters by telephone.

Rwanda has in the past used the presence of the FDLR as a justification for intervening in neighbouring Congo. But the rebel group, which experts say has dwindled in strength, has not mounted a significant attack on Rwanda in years.

Rwandan government spokeswoman and Foreign Affairs Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said they would not allow Tuesday's attack to interfere with the regional push to bring peace to eastern Congo.

"This morning's attack by the FDLR forces from their bases in DRC is clearly an attempt to take advantage of the volatile situation in eastern DRC," she said in a statement.

"We will counter any violation of Rwandan territory by the FDLR and continue to protect our borders but will not allow today's fighting to derail the ongoing regional peace process."

Congo and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing the M23 group in eastern Congo, which has big reserves of gold, tin and coltan, an ore of rare metals used in making mobile phones.

That is denied by Rwandan President Paul Kagame who has long complained that Kabila's government and UN peacekeepers have not done enough to drive out the FDLR from eastern Congo.