Washington`s top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, discussed Kigali`s position on the Congolese crisis Saturday with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a president`s office source said.

`President Kagame informed his guest of Rwanda`s position on the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and reiterated that Rwanda was not involved in the conflict,` the official said on condition of anonymity.

`Frazer admitted that there was no evidence supporting claims that Rwanda was backing Laurent Nkunda, but during the meeting she nonetheless claimed that Rwanda had supported the rebels in the past,` the official added.

A press conference that had been scheduled in Kigali following the US diplomat`s meeting with Kagame was cancelled.

The US assistant secretary of state for African affairs held talks in Kinshasa and visited the conflict-hit eastern town of Goma on Friday as part of intensive Western efforts to defuse the crisis.

Renegade general Laurent Nkunda`s had looked poised to seize Goma, the capital of the eastern DRC province of Nord-Kivu, earlier this week but declared a unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday.

The renewed fighting in eastern DRC left tens of thousands of civilians, some of them previously displaced, without food and shelter, prompting international concern of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Kinshasa accuses Kagame`s Tutsi regime of supporting Nkunda, a Tutsi, while Kigali blames the DRC and its army for failing to disarm a Rwandan Hutu group led by suspected perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi minority.

`Frazer also called for dialogue and insisted that a meeting between president Kagame and Congolese President Joseph Kabila could help bring a solution to the crisis,` the official said.

According to the European Commission, Kabila and Kagame have agreed to take part in an international summit on the conflict in the DRC at a venue which is yet to be determined.