Government forces are said to have been invovled in clashes that could threaten the ceasefire [EPA]

The reports of clashes on Thursday threaten a possible ceasefire deal that has seen hundreds of Nkunda's fighters pull back from frontline positions.

The AFP news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying that fighting had broken out at the villages of Katoro and Nyongera, near Kiwanja in North Kivu province.

Fighters with government-backed Mai-Mai forces accused UN peacekeepers of fighting alongside Nkunda's forces.

Didier Bitaki, a Mai-Mai spokesman, said that Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and peacekeepers with Monuc, the UN mission in the country, had joined forces against them.

"Monuc fired on our forces, they found themselves in difficulty called for help to the CNDP ... it is a CNDP/Monuc coalition against the Mai-Mai," he said.

"The CNDP are trying to dislodge us from Katoro."

Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesman for Monuc, could not immediately confirm or deny the report.

Ethnic tensions

Bertrand Bisimwa, a spokesman for Nkunda's CNDP, said the use of heavy weapons in the fighting meant that government troops and Rwandan Hutu rebels were involved in the fighting, adding that the Hutu force was fighting alongside the government soldiers.

"They tried to advance on our positions at around 6.30 am (04:30 GMT) to take Kiwanja," said Bisimwa.

Nkunda has repeatedly accused the government of backing the Rwanda Hutu fighters, some of whom - according to Rwanda - took part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in their country.

On Wednesday, Monuc peacekeepers opened fire on the pro-government Mai-Mai fighters in the region after two of their armoured cars came under fire from them while on patrol.

Rebel withdrawal

The reports of fighting come a day after hundreds of Tutsi fighters pulled back from the frontline, a move welcomed by the UN as a step toward brokering peace in the DRC's North Kivu region.

UN foot and air patrols monitored the rebels' withdrawal.

Amid the ceasefire, aid workers scrambled to reach more of the 300,000 hungry, exhausted refugees displaced by the fighting.

Angola meeting

The rebel pullback has raised hopes for peace talks that could end the violence in eastern Congo.

Joseph Kabila, the Congolese president, has said he will discuss the conflict in his country with Angola's president on Friday.

The DRC recently asked Angola for political and military support to tackle the advance of Nkunda's forces, but the Angolan government, which has one of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest armies, has repeatedly said it will not interfere directly in the conflict.

The Angolan military backed the Congolese government in the DRC's 1998-2003 war.

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