The rebel leader in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo wants peace talks and has agreed to set up a body that would monitor a ceasefire, the UN special envoy in the region said Sunday.

BOGOTA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday said his dealings with politicians linked to paramilitary groups were done 'openly and in public,' but charged that some opposition leaders maintained secret, illegal relations with leftist rebels.

'The relations the president had with politicians have always been carried out openly and in public, compared to the clandestine relations (Alternative Democratic Pole Party, or PDA) members have with the guerrillas,' Uribe said in a statement.

KAMPALA, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Ugandan rebels said Saturday they had apologised to survivors of a massacre of some 400 civilians their fighters carried out in northern Uganda three years ago.

Santa Okot of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) said the rebels toured the camp in Uganda's Lira district Friday and apologised to widows and orphans of the February 2004 killings, in which their fighters mowed down fleeing civilians and burned them alive. The attack was one of the country's deadliest in years.

BUJUMBURA, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - At least seven suspected members of a breakaway faction of Burundi's last active rebel group have been killed by their rivals in an attack near the capital, the initerior minister said Monday.

Evariste Ndayishimiye said gunmen allied to National Liberation Forces (FNL) leader Agathon Rwasa attacked a camp south of Bujumbura late Sunday, killing the seven.

The attack was the third by the FNL against their rivals. Experts say about 1,400 fighters from the splinter group are housed in two camps and protected by the Burundian military.

COLOMBO, Oct 22, 2007 (AFP) - Sri Lanka Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels said Monday they had used members of an elite suicide squad to stage their first-ever coordinated ground and air assault against a key military base.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said 21 members of the 'Black Tigers' unit launched the ground attack before dawn, and were later backed by two light fixed-wing aircraft.

KINSHASA, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - DR Congo rebels said Sunday they would not give up their weapons without holding talks with the authorities, on the eve of a government-set ultimatum to disarm or face a fresh army offensive.

The Congolese government has given forces under renegade Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda until Monday to disarm and either join the army or demobilise. It has refused to negotiate with the rebels.

BUJUMBURA, Oct 14, 2007 (AFP) - Unidentified gunmen shot dead three top members of Burundi's last active rebel group and injured a fourth outside a restaurant in central Bujumbura, the police and army said Sunday.

'Last night (Saturday), three chiefs from the dissident FNL were killed and a fourth hurt in an attack with automatic weapons in front of the 'L'Albatros de Bwiza' bar-restaurant,' a police officer requesting anonymity told AFP.

Army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza confirmed the shooting.

BALLENAS, Colombia, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that his previously delayed meeting with Colombian leftist rebels will take place 'in coming days.'

Speaking after a meeting here with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Chavez said that his efforts to mediate an exchange of hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the country's largest rebel group, for guerrillas held by the government was going well.

LIBREVILLE, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - Former Chadian rebels waiting to join the national army have left their eastern bases to make for the Sudanese border, their former chief told international French radio station RFI.

Mahamat Nour Abdelkerim, the former head of United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) who became a government minister last March following a 2006 peace accord with N'Djamena, told RFI late Thursday that an 'unfortunate event' had taken place the previous night in the eastern town of Guereda.

KHARTOUM, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A Sudanese government-backed air and ground assault on a Darfur town killed almost 50 civilians, a spokesman for the only rebel group to have signed a peace deal with Khartoum said on Tuesday.

'According to the latest toll, 48 civilians were killed in the town' of Mohajiriya in southern Darfur, Sudan Liberation Movement spokesman Seifeddin Haroun said.

There was no way of confirming the casualties.

DAR ES SALAAM, Oct 8, 2007 (AFP) - Regional African leaders will gather in Tanzania to consider the fate of Burundi's last active rebels whose activities have stalled the implementation of a truce, an official said Monday.

'We are now having consultations for the purpose of convening a regional summit soon to deliberate on the fate of FNL (National Liberation Forces),' said Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe.

NAIROBI, Oct 7, 2007 (AFP) - Ugandan rebels warned on Sunday that denying them hundreds of thousands of dollars to hold a rare public consultation exercise may unravel peace talks aimed at ending two decades of civil war.

Plans to seek delegates for a forum on the peace process in southern Sudan later this month failed to go ahead on October 1 as intended because funds were blocked, said Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) spokesman Godfrey Ayoo.

BUJUMBURA, Oct 6, 2007 (AFP) - The chief mediator in Burundi has called on the country's last active rebel group to rejoin ceasefire efforts, saying he would not resign after the group accused him of bias.

The National Liberation Forces (FNL) last month refused to attend planned talks with the government in Dar es Salaam, saying they rejected South African Charles N'qakula as mediator.

WASHINGTON, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - The trial of Colombian leftist guerrilla leader Ricardo Palmera on drug trafficking charges ended here Thursday after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Federal judge Royce Lambert set a new trial from March 3.

Palmera, also known as Simon Trinidad, is a member of the general staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest and oldest guerrilla group.

NDJAMENA, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Rebel forces and the Chadian government will observe a three week ceasefire whilst negotiating a final peace deal in Tripoli, the two sides told AFP Thursday.

The biggest four rebel groups are currently in the Libyan capital for talks with the government of President Idriss Deby.

Chad has accused neighbouring Sudan of giving backing to the rebel groups in eastern Chad who seek to overthrown Deby's government.

'They have agreed on a three week truce' a government source in the Chadian delegation told AFP on condition of anonymity.

BOGOTA, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe insisted on Wednesday that two rebel leaders held in the United States would not be included in a proposed prisoner swap with Colombia's FARC rebel group.

Visiting US Defense Secretary Robert Gates indicated he agreed with Uribe on the issue, saying: 'I'm satisfied with those limits.'

N'DJAMENA, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - The Chad government and the country's four main rebel groups on Wednesday agreed to a peace deal in Tripoli, which is due to be signed in the coming days, government and rebel sources said.

Infrastructure Minister and Chadian government number two Adoum Younousmi agreed to the deal with the rebel groups in the Libyan capital, these sources told AFP.

BANJUL, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - A court in Gambia has charged eight members of the recalcitrant faction of a Senegalese ex-rebel movement with spying and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism, a judiciary official said on Tuesday.

According to a court document obtained by AFP Tuesday, the eight, whose date of arrest has not been specified, 'conspired to carry out acts of terrorism against' Senegal while on Gambian territory between 2004 and 2006.

NAIROBI, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Ugandan troops looted truckloads of valuable trees from south Sudan when they were pursuing Lord's Resistance Army rebels who were hiding in the region, a research group said on Friday.

The Swiss-based Small Arms Survey said the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) cut teak trees in southern Sudan's Equatoria region during Operation Iron Fist, which had been approved by the Khartoum government.

BOGOTA, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - The United States is willing to look at any 'concrete proposal' from Colombian Marxist guerrillas holding three Americans hostages since 2003, the US ambassador to Colombia said Wednesday.

'We will look at any concrete proposal from the people who have custody of these three hostages,' Ambassador William Brownfield told reporters in Bogota, referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

BUJUMBURA, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Burundi's last active rebels fired a mortar at a rival faction killing two people and wounding 10 others, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

Captain Clement Kimana said rebels allied to National Liberation Forces (FNL) leader Agathon Rwasa hurled a mortar at their foe's camp in the north of the capital Bujumbura late Tuesday.

'We wanted to teach them a lesson because these people are described by the government as FNL dissidents, which is false,' FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP by phone.

CARACAS, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that the United States could help efforts to get Colombia's goverment and Marxist rebels to agree on a exchange of hostages for guerrilla prisoners.

Chavez, a mediator in Colombia's hostage crisis, has an adversarial relationship with the United States, but he said he hoped US President George W. Bush offer assistance.

NAIROBI, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Ugandan rebels will next month hold a rare convention to seek public views on current peace efforts before resuming talks with the government, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Some 500 northern Uganda delegates will meet in Ri-Kwangba, a remote jungle clearing on the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border in mid-October for a week, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) spokesman Godfey Ayoo told AFP.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit France in November to discuss the fate of hostages, including prominent Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, held by Colombian Marxist rebels, the French President said Monday.

'Mr. Chavez will visit France in November. I have spoken with him by phone three or four times over the past 15 days,' President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

NAIROBI, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Oxfam on Monday urged the Ugandan government to improve security in the northern region, where displaced people have started returning home amid a fragile truce between the government and rebels.

Kampala and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been in peace talks since July 2006 to end two decades of war in northern Uganda, but have yet to fix a date for a new round of dialogue in the south Sudanese capital of Juba.

KHARTOUM, Sept 23, 2007 (AFP) - A rebel commander in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur has called on an influential exiled leader to join peace talks with the government in Libya next month.

Abdel Karim Jar al-Nabi, who represents the Group of 19 (G19), which split from the Sudan Liberation Movement in 2006, urged Abdel Wahid Nur who founded the SLM to attend the talks which are due to start in Tripoli on October 27.

WASHINGTON, Sept 22, 2007 (AFP) - The relatives of three Americans held by Marxist guerrillas in Colombia met Saturday in Florida with a Colombian lawmaker acting as a mediator to win the release of dozens of hostages.

Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba talked in Orlando with the families of Thomas Howe, Keith Stannsen and Marc Gonsalvez, US State Department contractors who were seized in Colombia in February 2003 after the rebels shot down their plane in the jungle during an anti-drug mission.

LIBREVILLE, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A top Darfur rebel confined to a hospital by the Sudanese government for the past year was released by Khartoum and wishes to participate in the upcoming peace negotiations, he told AFP Friday.

'The agreement (for my release) was made by the Sudanese authorities and the United Nations for medical reasons,' said Jamous via telephone in N'Djamena.

'I hope to take up my role again' as humanitarian coordinator for the rebels, 'and take part in peace negotiations. But this depends on the decision of the rebel groups,' he added.

KHARTOUM, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - Sudanese newspapers blamed supporters of hardline Darfur rebel chief Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur on Friday for a Khartoum bombing which police said wounded six people and could have caused heavy casualties.

Police said that demonstrators threw a bomb at a petrol tanker as it was unloading at a fuel station in the densely populated heart of the capital on Thursday.

'Police successfully foiled the attack and arrested some of the protestors who numbered around 20 in all,' underlining that 'a potential catastrophe was averted.'

KHARTOUM, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - A major Darfur rebel group has called for peace talks with the Sudanese government due to be held in Libya next month to be delayed, saying a ceasefire must first take hold in the war-ravaged region.

'The timing of the forthcoming round of peace negotiations on Darfur -- as scheduled to convene in Tripoli on 27 October -- needs to be reconsidered,' Sudan Liberation Movement leader Ahmed Abdel Shafi said in a statement received by AFP on Thursday.

PARIS, Sept 20, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet with Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Monday to discuss the fate of hostages held by rebels including prominent Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, his spokesman said Thursday.

Sarkozy will hold talks with Uribe on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to mediate a solution between Bogota and the rebels.

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 19, 2007 (AFP) - A United Nations panel on Wednesday recommended an independent probe into alleged human rights violations in Ethiopia's Ogaden region, where the army has cracked down on rebels.

A UN fact-finding mission travelled to Ogaden in late August to probe allegations that the military had committed rights abuses in its clampdown on Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) insurgents.

BUJUMBURA, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Burundi's last active rebel group on Sunday refused mediated talks with the government, accusing the South African head of a mediation team of bias, a spokesman for the group said.

The National Liberation Forces (FNL) was to take part in discussions in Dar es Salaam with a team of mediators from Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa.

'Our leader Agathon Rwasa will not honour the invitation by minister N'qakula, whom we reject as mediator,' FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said, referring to Charles N'qakula, the chief mediator.

PARIS, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is ready to travel to Colombia if such a visit can help win the release of hostages held by Marxist rebels, his spokesman said Sunday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday said he was ready to play the role of go-between for Bogota and suggested that Sarkozy too could step in to find a solution.

'If it's necessary, I think that he will not hesitate, if it can be useful and if it's the appropriate moment,' said presidential spokesman David Martinon, when asked about a possible visit.

KAMPALA, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) - Foreign ministers from Africa's Great Lakes nations gathered here Sunday to discuss regional insecurity following weeks of fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The one-day talks by top diplomats from Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda were to focus on 'strategies aimed at ending regional security threats from negatives forces,' a statement said.

CARACAS, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Saturday pressed his efforts to play a role as intermediary with Marxist FARC rebels, urging his Colombian counterpart to let him meet in Colombia with the guerillas' chief, and suggesting France's leader could join the talks.

'President (Alvaro) Uribe asked me to help. I want to help. I make the formal request before the world: let me talk with (Manuel) Marulanda in Colombia,' Chavez said on television, naming the head of the guerrilla movement.

CARACAS, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez Saturday asked his Colombian counterpart to let him meet with the chief of Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels to discuss a hostage swap, and suggested French leader Nicolas Sarkozy could join the talks.

'President (Alvaro) Uribe asked me to help him. I want to help him. I make a formal request to him before the world: let me talk with (Manuel) Marulanda in Colombia,' Chavez said on television, naming the head of the guerrilla movement.