Medical experts fear localised outbreaks of cholera could become a full-blown epidemic [AP]

The renegade general's threat of further violence in the east of the country came as aid agencies said the fighting could cause a cholera epidemic among the tens of thousands of displaced.

"If they come in and fight alongside the FARDC [DR Congo army] and the FDLR [pro-government Hutu fighters], they will be weakened," Nkunda told the Reuters news agency by telephone from eastern Congo.

"I am ready to fight them. They will share the same shame as the DRC government."

On Sunday, Tomaz Salomao, head of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), said members were willing to send peacekeepers to support the DR Congo army.

He said a military advisory team would be deployed immediately and the United Nations would be asked to expand the mandate of its peacekeeping mission, known as Monuc.

Sadc also renewed calls for a ceasefire and the creation of humanitarian corridor.

Cholera outbreak

There were about 80 known cases across camps in the region, but the movement of people displaced by the fighting has raised concerns that the localised outbreaks could develop into a full-blown epidemic.

Doctors at a hospital in Goma have confirmed two cases among the city's residents, adding to fears the disease is quickly spreading outside the camps.

Dr Claire-Lise Chaigot of the World Health Organisation warned that "all the ingredients are there" for a cholera epidemic.

"We have a serious risk of having a big cholera epidemic in this part of the world ... We have a population that is on the move, an unstable security situation  and a population that does not have access to safe water and proper sanitation," she said from Geneva.

Chaigot said that fresh fighting would further hinder efforts to get aid and medical supplies to people already hard to reach.

The United Nations has a 17,000-strong peacekeeping froce in DR Congo, but is asking for an extra 3,000 troops as the current force is thinly stretched across the country the size of western Europe.

More than 250,000 people have fled their homes to escape the fighting between government forces and Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People in recent weeks.

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in clashes.

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