Rwanda has urged Canada to ensure the deportation of a Rwandan 'genocide inciting' refugee with assurances that the country can conduct fair trials.

Rwanda's Hutu rebels in the DRC claimed on Friday they had inflicted heavy losses on the forces involved in the joint operation launched against them.

The armies of the DRC and Rwanda clashed with fighters trying to retake a village and killed four of them, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has been arrested in Rwandan territory after he tried to resist a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation.

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said on Monday he would fight African peacekeepers if they backed government troops against him.

Tutsi rebels in eastern DRC have been accused of summarily killing civilians as they seized a town that had been the stronghold of Hutu militias.

Rebel troops were poised outside the Congolese city of Goma on Friday as the EU mulled sending troops to the strife-torn region to prevent a disaster.

Congolese rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda have said they will return to a ceasefire commission monitoring a rocky January peace deal. The United Nations and Western governments brokered the January deal in the hope of establishing a lasting peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo's turbulent east.

A month-old peace accord in east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faced a fresh hitch on Friday when Tutsi rebels halted participation in a ceasefire commission in protest at United Nations allegations they had massacred civilians. The move announced by renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda posed a potential threat to the January 23 ceasefire.

Congolese Tutsi rebels and Mai Mai militia clashed on Monday in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), breaking a ceasefire signed last week aimed at ending a long-running conflict, the two factions said. Tutsi fighters loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Pareco Mai Mai militia blamed each other for the fighting.