GOMA, Congo (Reuters) - Congo's government will meet eastern Tutsi rebels in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday for their first direct talks to formalise a cease-fire and discuss a peace process, Foreign Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba said on Friday.
Rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda has been demanding direct talks with President Kabila's government as one of the conditions for ending his four-year-old revolt in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congo's government had been resisting the idea of direct talks with Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebels, insisting instead that they return to a wider peace pact signed in January with several armed groups.
"A meeting between representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo and from the CNDP, under the auspices of United Nations and African Union facilitators, will take place on December 8, 2008 at Nairobi, Kenya to formalise the cease-fire and discuss a peace plan for eastern Congo," Mwamba said.
He made the announcement in Goma, the capital of Congo's eastern North Kivu province, following talks with his Rwandan counterpart Rosemary Museminali.
Nkunda, who says he wants to discuss security and the situation of ethnic minorities with the government, has seized territory in North Kivu in advances since August which routed Kabila's army and displaced a quarter of a million people.
He has declared a cease-fire with government forces, but fighting between his rebels and pro-government militias has continued in the province bordering Rwanda and Uganda.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Reporting by Joe Bavier; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)
