The rebels troops led by ethnic Tutsi warlord Laurent Nkunda "are backed by tanks" and "artillery" from Rwanda, according to Uruguayan military commander Jorge Rosales, who is overseeing the peacekeeping troops.

Over the last two days the rebels have laid siege to some 300 Uruguayan and 150 Indian peacekeepers, and some 100 UN staff, NGO personnel and local civilians at a UN base in Rutshuru, near Goma, the regional capital in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu.

The rebels also currently surround the city.

The Uruguayan contingent of the UN mission in the country (MONUC) have been under siege "without drinking water for 48 hours," said Bayardi at a press conference at the Command of Peacekeeping Operations in Montevideo.

"Yesterday there was a contact with Nkunda and the water was restored, but the blockade remains and (those inside) are rationing food," he said.

Rosales said it was "not easy to identify rebel forces," but indicated that there is "high probability that troops from Rwanda are operating in the area."

The rebels have also recently attacked camps for people displaced by the conflict, UN officials reported.

"These (rebel) troops are backed by tanks, something that General Nkunda had not had until now," said Rosales.

Uruguayan peacekeeping troops have been attacked with "artillery fire," and, Rosales said, "Nkunda has also not had artillery" until now.

Some 629 Uruguayan peacekeepers are in Goma, along with 700 peacekeepers from India.

Rebel forces are within two kilometers (1.6 miles) from the UN peacekeepers, eight kilometers north of Goma, said Montevideo.

The peacekeeping forces are in the DRC working secure the area and protect civilians, as well as United Nations personnel and facilities.

earlier related report
Rwanda: key player in any DRCongo resolution
Rwanda may claim the conflict on its doorstep in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is an internal affair, but the stream of visitors to Kigali shows it to be a key part of any settlement.

"Ninety-five percent of the solution to the current crisis lies in the hands of the DRC government," said European Union development commissioner Louis Michel on a visit here on Friday.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame Michel did not specify what role, Rwanda had in the remaining five percent.

But he has followed in the footsteps of other representatives of the international community seeking to prevent the conflict in Nord Kivu province, which borders Rwanda, degenerating into a major humanitarian catastrophe.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also dispatched an emissary to Kigali, and US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer is due there this weekend.

The British foreign office says Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner are to visit Rwanda on their way back from a trip to the besieged city of Goma.

But the line from Kigali does not vary. The fighting between the government forces and the rebels led by renegade Tutsi Congolese general Laurent Nkunda is an internal Congolese affair.

Kagame repeated that position earlier this week when Kinshasa sent envoys to ask for a summit meeting with Congo President Joseph Kabila.

On Wednesday in Nairobi, Frazer cast doubt on the Rwandan disclaimer of any involvement.

"We have no evidence that Rwanda is fighting directly in eastern Congo, but we do believe that Rwandan territory has been used to provide support to the CNDP (National Congress for the Defence of the People: Nkunda's forces)," she said.

"It is a very, very easy border to cross, supplies can go back and forth easily."

Nkunda, whose troops threaten Goma, capital of Nord Kivu, justifies his action by the existence in the east of Congo of bases of the Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FLDR), some of whom fled Rwanda after taking part in the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.

While the Kigali government denies backing Nkunda, it, too, has been demanding for years that the FLDR be neutralised.

"I think the international community should also play its part in the disarmament and repatriation of the FDLR," Michel said in Kigali.

The day before in Kinshasa, he had called for a peace plan signed by Congo and Rwanda in Nairobi in November last year to be implemented.

Under its terms, Kisnhasa undertook to work out a plan "to eliminate the threat" represented by the FDLR.

For its part, Kigali promised to "make its border secure and stop the entry or exit of members of any armed group, in particular that of Nkunda".

But to resolve the issue of the many armed groups active in eastern Congo Kigali and Kinshasa have to talk direvctly.

And, Arthur Kepel, researcher in conflict analysis at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said recently, "the two capitals are not sincere in their rapprochement" after years of fighting.

One of the aims of the joint Kouchner-Miliband mission is that "politically the different actors agree to talk to each other more," said a French foreign ministry spokesman.

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