Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday the Congolese government and the UN mission there known as MONUC must, in two months, disarm Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels who recently crossed into eastern Congo or his army would do so.

Some 400 Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who in September crossed from Sudan to the Garamba National Park in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are the latest of several foreign groups which the government says must leave the country by Friday or face serious consequences.

Delegates attending a session of the Regional Preparatory Committee on the International Conference on the Great Lakes have adopted peace and security documents as well as a non-aggression and mutual defence pact, Angola's state-owned news agency, Angop, reported on Thursday.

The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will on 30 September begin using force to expell all foreign rebel fighters in the country, a spokesman for President Joseph Kabila said on Thursday.

Rwandan Hutu rebels in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have until 30 September to disarm or else face "severe" consequences, ministers of regional cooperation from DRC, Rwanda and Uganda said on Thursday.

Lawyers and experts representing the government of Rwanda began making oral arguments on Monday before the 15 judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, in the first of four days of public hearings concerning armed activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo told diplomats on Tuesday that he had ordered his army to begin disarming, immediately, thousands of foreign rebels in the east of his country.

Up to 45,000 AU peacekeepers could be needed to disarm an estimated 15,000 Rwanda Hutus based in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a 19-page report issued on Friday by the African Union.

Experts on peace and security from Great Lakes countries and international organisations began meeting in Nairobi on Monday to prepare documents that will constitute the Pact of Security, Stability and Development that heads of state of the region are to sign in November.

The EU special representative to Africa's Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello, said on Friday the Union might support military action against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo if they refuse to disarm and return home.