Nairobi/Kinshasa - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) has denied it is playing a direct military role in an operation launched against Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Media reports at the beginning of the week said that MONUC and the DR Congo armed forces (FARDC) had been sent to protect civilians from the LRA.

"Under the framework of the Juba (peace process), MONUC is supporting the FARDC ... logistically in terms of transport and medical and social assistance," MONUC said in a statement responding to the media reports. The LRA, which is well-known for recruiting child soldiers, has in recent months been attacking villages and abducting people in southern Sudan, DR Congo and parts of the Central African Republic, United Nations and military officials said.

MONUC said the Congolese troops had deployed around the Garamba national park in the north-east to stop the LRA from harassing civilians and kidnapping children.

Uganda, DR Congo and MONUC agreed in early June to take military action against Kony.

The elusive guerrilla commander is holed up in Garamba, where he fled in late 2004 after being forced out of his former southern Sudanese bases.

Kony, a former lay preacher in his late 40s, is refusing to sign up to a final peace deal after two years of negotiations and is believed to have been using the time to rearm.

Kony said he will only sign the peace deal if the International Criminal Court removes indictments it slapped on him and four other LRA members for war crimes.

According to the court, the LRA is guilty of abductions, killings, rapes and the conscription of Ugandan children.

The LRA rebellion, which has stretched over decades, has seen tens of thousands killed or mutilated and several million displaced in Uganda. (dpa)