Government forces are said to have been invovled in clashes that could threaten the ceasefire. Clashes have broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between Tutis fighters loyal to General Laurent Nkunda, the renegade army general, and pro-government fighters, reports have said. The reports of clashes on Thursday threaten a possible ceasefire deal that has seen hundreds of Nkunda's fighters pull back from frontline positions.

The AFP news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying that fighting had broken out at the villages of Katoro and Nyongera, near Kiwanja in North Kivu province. Fighters with government-backed Mai-Mai forces accused UN peacekeepers of fighting alongside Nkunda's forces. Didier Bitaki, a Mai-Mai spokesman, said that Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and peacekeepers with Monuc, the UN mission in the country, had joined forces against them.

"Monuc fired on our forces, they found themselves in difficulty called for help to the CNDP ... it is a CNDP/Monuc coalition against the Mai-Mai," he said.

"The CNDP are trying to dislodge us from Katoro."

Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, a spokesman for Monuc, could not immediately confirm or deny the report.