International envoys pushed on Rwanda and Congo today to end a rebellion on their border, with EU presidency holder France pressing for the rapid deployment of an EU force.
A four-day offensive by Congolese Tutsi rebels has sent tens of thousands of civilians fleeing in North Kivu province, where two years of violence has forced nearly one million people from their homes despite the end of Congo's broader 1998-2003 war.
Several people were killed in looting overnight as gunfire rang out across the provincial capital Goma and artillery boomed by the nearby border. Shooting subsided in the early hours but artillery blasts were heard from the border area during the day.
Rwanda and Congo each accuse the other of border incursions but both deny entering each other's territory.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana spoke with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, while EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel met Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila, hoping to get the two leaders to meet face to face.
"I think there is a little bit of movement. The foreign minister of Rwanda is in Kinshasa now," Mr Solana said.
"I think there will be the possibility of a meeting between the two teams, the two countries, and that will no doubt help to put in place political processes which are absolutely necessary," he told reporters in Paris.
Congo's renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda and his 4,000 rebels have fought on and off since 2004 against Congo's army, which Nkunda accuses of siding with Rwandan Hutus who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
A January ceasefire collapsed in August, triggering renewed bloodshed that has forced some 250,000 civilians onto the road.
General Nkunda, whose campaign to defend Tutsi communities has widened into a broader revolt, has demanded direct talks with Kabila's government, which has in turn insisted any talks should take place in the framework of the UN-brokered January deal.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who proposed yesterday the EU send up to 1,500 troops, said EU members would meet by the weekend to discuss sending a humanitarian force.
A Western diplomat said yesterday Germany was resisting France's plan to send troops to Congo, as the EU has done twice already since Congo's broader regional war ended in 2003.
"What we hope to work on is aid which could be brought to Goma ... This response in our point of view should be humanitarian," Mr Kouchner told reporters in Paris.