The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) chief has waged a 20-year war against the government, demanding the country be ruled according to the biblical 10 commandments.

The man with a rumoured 60 wives has sown terror in northern Uganda, also instilling a mystical fear in his own followers. He is now wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for a raft of war crimes charges.

Kony had hunkered down with some of his top commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Garamba forest but is believed to have recently relocated to the neighbouring Central African Republic.

The LRA signed a truce with Kampala in July 2006, paving the way for peace talks in the South Sudanese capital Juba, but he has refused to participate in negotiations, citing fear of arrest over a 2005 ICC warrant.

The self-proclaimed prophet has only appeared in public twice since the peace talks with the Ugandan government began.

Both the LRA and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni this month pledged an end to the talks that have lagged for over a year and half. They agreed on several outstanding issues, including disarmament of the LRA.

Despite pleading for forgiveness and saying he is ready for peace, Kony still denies accusations that his movement has committed atrocities against civilians in northern Uganda by raping and mutilating civilians, abducting children to be soldiers and massacring thousands.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and two million others displaced in northern Uganda, the epicentre of the brutal war with the LRA.

Kony belongs to the Acholi ethnic group and was born in Odek, in Uganda's northern Gulu district, in the early 1960s.

An erstwhile altar boy and catechist, he is believed to have only completed primary school. Kony speaks the Acholi language and broken English.

In his early 20s, he reportedly began his rebel career with an Acholi militia group made up of school dropouts and social misfits that fought against pastoral cattle raiders in northeast Uganda from 1984-85.

As early as 1987, Kony took over a two-year-old rebellion in northern Uganda from Alice Lakwena, a former prostitute believed to be his cousin who told her fighters she could make potions turning bullets into stones.

Despite the LRA's viciousness, Kony has said the movement is only fighting for justice in Uganda.

"We want the people of Uganda to be free. We are fighting for democracy. We want our leader to be elected -- but not a movement like Museveni," he told the Times newspaper in an interview.

However, ex-LRA abductees say they have been forced to maim and kill friends and neighbours, sometimes by biting them to death, and participate in gruesome rites such as drinking their victims' blood.

Few outsiders have ever met Kony, whose reputation for violence was enhanced years ago when he allegedly began to issue and mercilessly enforce edicts he claimed to receive directly from the Holy Spirit, such as: "Thou shalt not ride a bicycle or eat pork."

Offenders were beaten and even killed but often not told the reasons for the new commandment, according to freed captives.

Kony is due to appear in the South Sudan jungle town of Ri-Kwangba on Friday to sign a comprehensive peace deal with government negotiators, according to the rebel peace delegation.

The government has promised him protection if he attends the ceremony.

Even with a peace deal, the reclusive Kony is not expected to take up official responsibilities in Kampala any time soon.

Museveni has not promised to demand the ICC warrants be lifted but the president -- also accused of forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands and killing civilians -- has made it clear he would favour home-grown justice.

"If he signs the peace agreement and returns to our jurisdiction, it becomes our responsibility not any other party, including the ICC," Museveni told journalists in London last month.

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