man on a motorbike transports a displaced person as they return home, near Kibati, just north of Goma, in eastern Congo, Friday. Thousands of war-weary refugees returned to the the road Friday, taking advantage of a rebel-called cease-fire to try to reach home beyond the front lines of this week's battles in eastern Congo. - AP

TONGO, Congo (AP):

The European Union could send troops to Congo if a fragile cease-fire between rebel fighters and the army fails, the United Kingdom minister for African affairs said yesterday as rebels forced tens of thousands of people from makeshift refugee camps in the insurgent-held zone.

The French and British foreign ministers arrived in Congo for talks with Congolese and Rwandan officials as pressure mounted for a regional summit to secure an end to the country's worst violence in years.

Outside the regional capital, Goma, rebels were pushing people to leave camps and return home, witnesses and a United Nations official said. They did not say why this was happening and the rebels issued no immediate comment.

"They beat us with sticks and told us that we must get out," said Daria Nyarangaruye, an elderly woman who wore a rosary around her neck.

Camps closed

Nyarangaruye said she had been forced to leave a camp in Tongo that had housed thousands of people a day earlier. She spoke near her home by a roadside, six miles (10 kilometres) away and said she feared more fighting and did not feel safe.

Further south in Rutshuru, a rebel commander who identified himself as Major. Muhire said people were returning home because they were free to. But a UN official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for the safety of UN staff, said rebels have closed camps housing thousands of people.

An upsurge in fighting between rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda and the army since August has displaced more than 220,000 people in a region already home to about 800,000 more displaced. Nkunda's fighters advanced to the doorstep of Goma Wednesday, forcing UN peacekeepers and the bedraggled army to retreat in tanks and commandeered civilian cars.

Unilateral cease-fire

The rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire Wednesday night and diplomats have rushed to secure it.

Britain's Africa minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, said Britain is on standby to provide forces for any EU mission, which would be aimed at bolstering the efforts of United Nations peacekeepers if violence escalates.

But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said a political, rather than a military, solution is needed.

"There is only a solution to this by discussion and not by military means," Brown said as he left London on a trip to the Middle East.

Foreign ministers from Britain and France are holding talks with leaders in the region following fierce fighting between the army and Laurent Nkunda's rebel movement, some of the worst violence in the Central African nation in years.

Diplomatic solution

Malloch-Brown told BBC radio that, though a diplomatic solution is the priority, contingency plans have been drafted for the deployment of an EU force comprising of British troops.

"We have certainly got to have it as an option which is developed and on the table if we need it," Malloch-Brown said. "If everything else fails, we cannot stand back and watch violence erupt."

The European Union is proposing a UN-organised summit of the nations bordering eastern Congo, and says Rwanda and Congo would attend. Rwanda's presidency said no date had been set and gave no details.