Militia loyal to the Congolese government captured the main base used by rebels waging an uprising in the east of the country after a week-long offensive by government troops, a militia commander said yesterday.

But rebels loyal to General Laurent Nkunda, a dissident army officer who launched the rebellion in May, denied that the pro-government militia had driven them out of their headquarters in the lakeside town of Minova.

Government troops have been advancing north from the city of Bukavu for the past week, aiming to crush the rebellion that has sharpened tensions in the volatile region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.

The commander of the pro-government militia force -- known as Mai Mai – in the area said they had taken Minova, which lies about 120 km (75 miles) north of Bukavu, on Sunday, although there was no way to immediately verify the report.

“Yesterday we chased out the insurgents and are now in control of Minova,” Colonel Solomon Tokolonga, the Mai Mai militia commander, told Reuters by telephone.

“We have captured two insurgents, but the rest have taken to the lake or gone into the hills. They are all heading north towards North Kivu – that is where their support is,” he said, referring to a large swathe of territory north of Minova which is Nkunda’s home province.

However, an aide to Nkunda denied that Minova, which has served as the rebels’ headquarters for the past few months, had fallen. “Minova has not fallen to the government forces. We are still in control there,” the aide told Reuters.

The commander of government troops involved in the offensive, General Felix Mbuza Mabe, said there had not been any fighting over the weekend, appearing to suggest that the Mai Mai may have taken the town unopposed.

“I have heard that the Mai Mai have taken Minova, but my troops are not yet there. There have not been any clashes over the weekend,” Mabe told Reuters.

Mabe has said that he launched the offensive to retake positions held by the rebels and establish the government’s authority over the region.

Nkunda, a former commander of the Rwanda-backed RCD rebel movement, led a revolt four months ago which he said was to protect fellow ethnic Tutsis being killed by army soldiers. UN investigators have found no evidence of mass killings far.

<B>David Lewis</B>