The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is assisting the country's troops in cordon and search missions in the troubled east, where Ugandan rebels have been sighted and into which Ugandan-based soldiers were reported to have crossed briefly last month.

A UN Security Council mission arrived in Uganda on Wednesday and told reporters that the UN would increase pressure on illegal armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Since UN and government troops began a joint operation last week to flush out Hutu Rwanda rebels and other illegal armed groups in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) up to 336 armed men have surrendered, a UN military spokesman said on Tuesday.

The government of Kinshasa has categorically denied that the historic leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony is in the country as the Kampala daily 'New Vision' reported during the weekend.

Members of the UN Security Council are due to begin on Saturday a 10-day visit to Africa's Great Lakes region, that will take them to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Former rebel commanders, leaders of armed factions backed by Rwanda and Uganda for control of the resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also former ?government? generals and arms traffickers: some fifteen names were included in a list disclosed yesterday of those responsible for civilians massacres and violence in DR-Congo, to face punitive measures.

The hunt for Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) intensified on Wednesday when the UN mission there, known as MONUC, deployed a team of observers to the border with Sudan and announced that it would send 150 peacekeepers by the end of the week.

UN and Congolese troops destroyed five rebel camps on Monday during a joint operation in the Virunga National Park, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a military spokesman for the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), Maj Hans Reichen, said.

At least two people were brutally killed with machetes and another seven were abducted by Rwandan rebels in an attack attributed to the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), that since 1994 preside the forests of the east Democratic Republic of Congo.

Expressing serious concern about the continuing hostilities by militias and foreign armed groups in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the threat to elections in the country, the Security Council today extended the United Nations Organization Mission (MONUC) there until next September, with an additional 300 troops.