Mediators appeal to Congo rivals as talks begin

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Mediators urged eastern Congo rebels and the government to compromise on Monday at the first face-to-face talks to defuse tensions that have threatened to escalate into a new regional war.

Diplomats have welcomed the meeting in Nairobi, although neither Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila nor General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the rebel National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), came to Kenya.

"Please don't let Africa down. Don't let your country down," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said before the talks got underway. "Let this be the beginning of the end."

The discussions are aimed at ending fighting in Congo's North Kivu province between the military and Nkunda's Tutsi rebels that has displaced a quarter of a million people since August.

The rebels were angry at the government's decision to invite some 20 other armed groups to the talks and said they would not sit down with them. But no other groups turned up, and the two delegations met behind closed doors.

"It is an opportunity that must not be missed," Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president who is now U.N. special envoy for eastern Congo's conflict, urged both sides. "A military solution is not an option, but nor is the status quo."

A U.N. official said the talks were expected to continue on Tuesday.

The CNDP declared a cease-fire after reaching the gates of North Kivu's provincial capital Goma in late October. The truce has been generally respected by both the rebels and the army, leading to more than a month of relative calm in the area.

But clashes continue between Nkunda's fighters, Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels, who roam a region rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and tin and who often support Kabila's weak and chaotic army.

ROOTS OF WAR

A Congolese government minister angered the rebels on Sunday when he said the meeting in Nairobi would include all the groups who signed up to an earlier January peace deal, known by the Swahili name for peace 'Amani'.

Kenyan officials have noted other peace processes Nairobi has hosted, like Somalia, have dragged on for many months.

But the rebels were hopeful of quick progress.

"We would like to talk quickly and go back home as quickly as possible, even though there are many issues to solve," CNDP foreign affairs spokesman Rene Abandi said, urging the Kinshasa government also to formally sign a cease-fire.

U.S.-based Africa analyst John Prendergast said a quick-fix cease-fire would not solve the underlying roots of the Congo war, such as greed for minerals and the presence of the Rwandan Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) militia.

The FDLR includes in its ranks perpetrators of the 1994 genocide of Tutsis by Hutus in neighbouring Rwanda. Congo accuses Tutsi rebel Nkunda of receiving support from the Tutsi-led Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame.

"The twin issues of Rwanda's war displaced into Congo and the conflict minerals rush remain largely unaddressed," said Prendergast, who is co-chairman of a new U.S.-based research and advocacy group, the Enough Project.

"It is likely short-term ceasefires can be forged, but in the absence of significant new strategies dealing with FDLR and illicit minerals, the war will remain unresolved."

Congo and Rwanda agreed last week on a plan to disband FDLR fighters in eastern Congo. DRC's 1998-2003 war sucked in six neighbouring armies and caused more than five million deaths.

Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated a call for a European Union "bridging force," saying it may take up to six months for the U.N. to deploy 3,000 more peacekeepers to Congo to boost its 17,000-strong force, known as MONUC.

But EU ministers were split over the issue at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, with Belgium urging the bloc to send a bridging mission and Britain wanting it to bolster U.N. troops.

The foreign ministers took no decision and tasked EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the European Commission to prepare a response to Ban, an EU official said.

(Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kinshasa, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi, and Ingrid Melander and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Daniel Wallis)