Nairobi/Goma - Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a rebel offensive has forced tens of thousands to flee, were under way Friday as aid agencies warned of a looming humanitarian crisis.

A fragile peace is holding in the east of the country after rebel Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda on Wednesday evening called a ceasefire as his troops were on the verge of taking the major city of Goma.

Fighting had raged for four days, with the Congolese army being driven into full retreat.

UN peacekeepers also joined the battle, pounding Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) with helicopter gunships.

Washington - The top US envoy for Africa arrived in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday for talks aimed at ending the violence that has embroiled the country.

Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer was in Kinshasa to meet with President Joseph Kabila and has tentative plans to visit neighbouring Rwanda for talks with President Paul Kagame, deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

"She is there to try to promote a peaceful solution to the conflict," Wood said.

Brussels - The European Commission announced Thursday it was providing 4 million euros (5.1 million dollars) in emergency aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, as diplomats raced to find ways to help stop unrest in the African country.

The European Union's aid commissioner, Louis Michel, met Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa on Thursday and planned to meet his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, in Kigali on Friday, officials in Brussels said.

Kagame held talks over the phone with the EU's top diplomat, foreign policy chief Javier Solana, on Thursday.

Nairobi, Kinshasa  - Calm has returned to the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping mission said Thursday after four days of fighting that saw Tutsi rebels come close to taking the city of Goma.

General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), Wednesday evening announced a unilateral ceasefire to "prevent panic in Goma."

The UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) said that the ceasefire was holding.

New York - The intensified fighting in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo involved human shields and could create a "humanitarian crisis of catastrophic dimensions," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

The fighting between rebel troops and government soldiers could bring "dire consequences" in the region, Ban said.

Ban called on governments that have influence on the forces on the ground to try to restore an effective ceasefire and prevent further casualties among the civilian population.

Lusaka - While tens of thousands of people are fleeing renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of victims of the last war from 1998 to 
1993 are returning to their homes in the south of the country from neighbouring Zambia.

After nine years in refugee camps in Zambia, more and more Congolese refugees are packing for home, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia said Wednesday.

The refugees are being repatriated by road to their homes in Katanga province, which is deemed safe, deputy representative for the UNHCR Zambia, Fernando Alvarado, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.