Some 73 presidential candidates have registered for the upcoming elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but the main opposition leader was not among them and the commission has not set a date for the elections.

A human rights group is warning that the Democratic Republic of Congo's street children risk being manipulated by political parties during and after elections this year.

Registration for Congo's elections closed late Sunday with more than 70 people signing up for the presidential race and 4,000 aiming for a seat in parliament. The continuing absence of the veteran opposition UDPS party is raising concerns for the elections, which are meant to bring peace to the war-torn Congo.

Thousands of Congolese civilians in the northeastern district of Ituri arrived on Thursday at the port town of Kasenyi on Lake Albert, on the border with Uganda, after they fled fighting between the national army and militia groups, a local official said.

At least 1,000 residents of two villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo's northeastern district of Ituri sought refuge on Wednesday around a camp of Bangladeshi UN troops following fighting between militiamen and the national army, an official of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said.

Civic education ahead of elections scheduled for June is of "utmost importance" to sensitise the public for the democratic process, the head of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Independent Electoral Commission, Apollinaire Malumalu, has said.

The Council of the European Union announced on Thursday that it had approved "the concept" of EU troops supporting MONUC, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the presidential and legislative elections process this year.

Some 280 militiamen have withdrawn from the village of Katoto, in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the face of advancing government troops, a senior military officer said on Friday.

Humanitarian actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must increase efforts to resolve "critical" food shortages and lack of protection for at least 150,000 war-displaced people in Katanga Province, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.

Describing the Democratic Republic of Congo as being at a ?critical stage? ahead of landmark 18 June elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met officials in the east of the country, saying that he felt Congolese were excited at the prospect of electing their own leaders and ending the long, bloody civil conflict.