Nairobi/Kinshasa - Around 30,000 people fleeing battles between United Nations-backed Congolese troops and Tutsi rebels are pouring into refugee camps near the eastern city of Goma, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Wednesday as fierce fighting continued.

UN helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles have been supporting Congolese troops north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's troops drive for the town.

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) says it has driven the Congolese army back from the town of Kibumba, which lies about 20 kilometres north of Goma.

Nairobi/Kinshasa - Around 30,000 people fleeing fierce battles between Congolese troops and Tutsi rebels are pouring into refugee camps near the eastern city of Goma, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Wednesday, as the rebels appeared to push back government forces.

UN helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles have been supporting Congolese troops north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's troops press toward the town.

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) says it has driven the Congolese army back from the town of Kibumba, which lies about 20 kilometres north of Goma.

Manila - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday called for an immediate end to fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has resulted in an upsurge of refugees.

Nairobi - The top United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo has appealed for more soldiers as rebel forces threaten to overwhelm government and UN peacekeepers in the eastern part of the Central African nation.

UN helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles have been supporting Congolese troops north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, as renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda's troops press toward the town.

Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) has reportedly driven the Congolese army back from the town of Kibumba, which lies about 20 kilometres north of Goma.

New York - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed "extreme concern" over increasing attacks on UN peacekeepers and civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northern provinces.

Ban cited the situation in North Kivu, Rumangabo and Goma, where a local armed group called the National Congress for the Defence of People attacked UN peacekeepers and government military troops, in violation of a ceasefire.

New York - The flare-up in fighting along the border areas between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo may provoke a wider conflict in the region, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

The continued fighting between Congo's armed forces and Rwanda's local group known as CNDP (the National Congress for Popular Defence) under Laurent Nkunda is inflicting added suffering on the civilians in Congo, he said.