The Democratic Republic of Congo?s government is reported to be deploying 10,000 troops to the east of the country, to confront dissident forces. The UN and diplomats say troops are being sent to the towns of Beni, Kindu and Kalemie in the area next to Rwanda.

The move has prompted Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Muligande to accuse the Congolese authorities of preparing to attack his country. He said Rwanda would not sit back and watch these developments. Kinshasa is trying to re-establish control after a five-year civil war.

The conflict between Congolese rebel groups and the Kinshasa government sucked six neighbouring countries into a regional war in 1998 and led to two million deaths. Mr Muligande told his country was concerned at what he claimed was the deployment of troops in offensive positions in key towns in the east of DR Congo. Congolese Deputy Foreign Minister Henry Mova Sakanyi dismissed the charges as fabrications.

A Rwandan military spokesman also claimed that the Congolese government had provided significant quantities of weapons to Rwandan rebels in recent weeks.

Rwanda withdrew its troops from DR Congo in 2002 under the terms of a peace deal between the two countries, in return for Kinshasa agreeing to end support for ethnic Hutu rebels, some of whom participated in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. But tensions escalated earlier this month when renegade soldiers briefly took over the eastern town of Bukavu.

<B>?Explosive? </B>

Regional analyst Martin Plaut says the current situation is explosive. The rebel RCD-Goma group based in the east says it has 40,000 troops and has warned that any government deployment could lead to serious clashes, he says.

African leaders and the United Nations are making efforts to contain the situation to stop another regional escalation, he adds. Officials say more than 1,000 refugees a day are arriving in Burundi, amid fears of renewed fighting.

Most of the first refugees to arrive were from the same Congolese Tutsi ethnic group as the rebels, who fear reprisals from government soldiers.

?I do not know who was shooting or who has control of the area, but there was a heavy exchange of gunfire,? said refugee Maze Kahindo, who arrived in Burundi on Saturday.

Rebel General Laurent Nkunda, who headed the brief take-over of Bukavu, said he would not engage in further fighting because his demands had been met. General Nkunda had said that his fellow ethnic Banyamulenges were being targeted and killed by the army, but the UN dismissed his claims that he is preventing a genocide.