last updated: Saturday 1 November 2008, 22:52pm

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Foreign ministers in Congo for peace drive

The foreign ministers of France and Britain flew into the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday to try to secure peace in the east.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa and travel to the eastern city of Goma, threatened by an offensive by Tutsi rebels this week.

The attacks by fighters loyal to rebel leader, General Laurent Nkunda, and subsequent killings and looting by Congolese army troops have driven thousands of families from their homes in North Kivu province on the border with Rwanda.

Fearing more violence, the displaced civilians are seeking shelter, water and food in what aid workers are calling a catastrophic humanitarian situation.

Three days ago, Nkunda declared a ceasefire after his rebels fought to the gates of Goma, forcing back Congo's army and UN peacekeepers.

Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, and Miliband are due to look at the possibility of an EU humanitarian airlift into North Kivu that could be protected by EU troops on the ground.

The two European ministers will later travel from Congo to neighbouring Rwanda for talks with President Paul Kagame.

Congo and Rwanda have accused each other of backing rebel groups involved in the eastern Congo violence.

An estimated one million people have been forced from their homes in North Kivu by two years of violence that has persisted despite the end of a 1998-2003 war in the vast, former Belgian colony, which is rich in copper, cobalt, gold and diamonds.

The world's largest United Nations peacekeeping force, 17,000-strong, is deployed in Congo, but has been badly stretched by rebel and militia violence on several fronts and was not able to halt Nkunda's rapid advance on Goma.

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