New York - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he was ready to meet with the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring an end to the fighting that has created a fresh humanitarian crisis in Congo's provinces.

Ban said he would visit Africa either this week or next week if Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame were to agree on a meeting somewhere in that continent.

Ban, who had spoken to both leaders, said Kagame and Kabila have begun a dialogue along with their separate teams.

"This is a promising development," Ban told reporters at UN headquarters in New York. "I urge again all parties to stick to the current ceasefire and devote their best efforts to this nascent political process."

Ban named former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as his special envoy to work with African leaders and the international community to bring an end to the fighting.

The African Union is also convening an urgent regional summit on the fighting in Congo's Goma and North and South Kivu provinces. The rebel forces are led by general Laurent Nkunda, a Tutsi, who claimed his troops can take Goma anytime.

News reports and the UN said up to 250,000 Congolese had been displaced by the fighting, creating a new humanitarian crisis while relief convoys cannot get through to them because of insecurity.

The New York Times and some media reports in Europe criticized the 17,000-strong UN Mission in Congo, known as MONUC, of being powerless in the face of intensified attacks by armed rebels against government troops.

UN Undersecretary General Alain Le Roy of France said through a teleconference from the Congolese city of Goma that the criticism was "unfair" while the UN special envoy for Congo, Alan Doss, said it was a "disservice" to international troops who risked their lives in the areas.

"It's deeply unfair to those at the frontlines," Doss said. "We found ourselves caught between the two sides."

Le Roy said there are 5,500 peacekeepers in North Kivu trying to protect 10 million Congolese living in a territory that is half the size of France.

"We are doing what we can," he said.

Le Roy travelled to Congo to discuss the situation with the government in Kinshasa and made the comments in a televised press conference with reporters at UN headquarters. UN officials in Congo also took part in the conference, saying that the UN's priority in Congo is to protect the civilians, but it is overwhelmed by the lack of logistics and manpower.

They reported calm in Goma and North Kivu, where a ceasefire had been declared and a curfew imposed. They said UN peacekeepers now patrol the streets of those cities and reported normal daily activities by local businesses.

Ban on Monday reappointed Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye of Senegal as acting force commander for MONUC after the official commander from Spain resigned after seven months on the job, complaining that MONUC cannot handle the situation.

The European Union was planning to dispatch a military force to assist the UN peacekeeping operation.

"The rules of engagement now are very restrictive," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said ahead of an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in the southern French city of Marseille. "We can not have soldiers there who are not allowed to shoot. I'm not saying we should make war. But we should be able to carry out defensive missions."

Kouchner said conditions for the refugees in camps in the eastern North Kivu province were "deplorable" because relief aid cannot get through to them. (dpa)