The New Nation - Internet Edition

BBC Online

Fears are growing for the safety of thousands of civilians forced to flee their homes by fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN refugee agency said it remained concerned for some 50,000 people who fled refugee camps it believes were burned and looted.

Meanwhile, European diplomats are in DR Congo to seek a negotiated solution to the country's conflict with rebels.

More than 250,000 people have fled their homes during months of violence.

According to BBC a ceasefire around the city of Goma appears to be holding, but the situation for refugees in the city is increasingly desperate.

Reports say some are trying to return to their homes, journeying on foot through territory now controlled by the forces of renegade Gen Laurent Nkunda.

The general - who says he is protecting his Tutsi people against the Hutus linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda - has halted his troops close to the city of Goma.

Some 35,000 to 40,000 people have entered Goma to flee the fighting, but aid has been slow to reach the city amid a poor security situation.

As aid agencies battled to reach those most in need, senior diplomats from the European Union arrived in DR Congo in an effort to broker a diplomatic solution.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband were due to meet the president of DR Congo, Joseph Kabila, and President Paul Kagame of neighbouring Rwanda, later on Saturday.

The Rwandan and Congolese presidents have already agreed to attend a regional summit in the coming weeks to try to end the fighting.

European Union Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said agreement on the prospect of a regional summit was reached after two days of talks in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, and the Rwandan capital, Kigali.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has also called leaders in Africa, Europe and the US to urge them to "do all they can to bring the parties to a neutral venue for negotiations".

Senior African Union (AU) officials said the summit could be held in Tanzania, or in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where the AU is based, but according to BBC the meeting is likely to be staged in Nairobi, Kenya.

Supplies of food, water and medicine are low in Goma and many international relief workers have pulled out in the wake of reports of widespread rape and looting by retreating Congolese troops.

The BBC's Orla Guerin witnessed scenes of chaos at a refugee camp in Kibati, outside Goma, as desperately hungry people surged towards aid distribution points.