Kampala  - Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army killed hundreds of civilians in attacks - including the burning of a church - in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the weekend, a Ugandan government newspaper reported Monday.

The New Vision newspaper said the LRA, which has been fighting a guerrilla war for over two decades, attacked the villages of Tola and Libombi in north-east DR Congo, indiscriminately burning and hacking people to death.

"The rebels set ablaze a church called Bima in the Democratic Republic of Congo at midnight as the faithful prayed," the paper said. "It is not yet known how many Christians were in the church at the time."

The paper, quoting local sources, also claimed that the rebels butchered villagers, slitting their throats or crushing their skulls with clubs and axes.

The reports could not immediately be confirmed by government or military officials.

Prior to the latest reported attacks, aid agencies, government officials and human rights bodies said that the LRA had killed over 600 Congolese civilians since Christmas Eve.

On December 26, the LRA guerrillas massacred dozens of people in another church in DR Congo, according to Ugandan military sources and aid workers.

The guerrillas used machetes, swords and clubs to kill the people - amongst them women and children - who had taken refuge in a Catholic church near the border with the Central African Republic.

The massacres began after Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan launched a joint military offensive on LRA bases in the Garamba National Park.

The rebels have been hiding in the park since late 2004 after being flushed out of their bases in South Sudan.

The LRA, led by former lay preacher Joseph Kony, for decades unleashed terror in Uganda's northern region, where its rebellion displaced nearly 2 million people from their homes.

Thousands of civilians died in the conflict, while thousands of children were abducted and forced to fight or serve as sex slaves.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2005 issued arrest warrants for five LRA leaders, including Kony, for trial for murder, torture, rape, abductions and the drafting of children in warfare.

The Ugandan government and the rebels entered into talks to end the war mid-2006, but the rebels have refused to sign the final peace treaty last year.

They insist that The Hague-based court should first withdraw its indictments. (dpa)