Nairobi/Goma - Panicked government troops in full retreat have been looting and may also have abused civilians in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"Since last evening, during a withdrawal from the Kanyabayonga area (175 kilometres north of the North Kivu provincial capital Goma) the soldiers have been looting," Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich, military spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"They have been stealing cars and bicycles and taking food," he added. "There are also reports they have violated people."

Civilians have been caught in the middle of heavy clashes between the Congolese army and rebel forces led by Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda since the rebels began a major offensive over two weeks ago.

The rebels routed the Congolese government forces, which were accused of killing civilians and looting when they retreated to Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting, which has continued despite Nkunda calling a ceasefire as his troops were on the verge of taking Goma.

Nkunda says his men are sticking to the ceasefire and are only defending themselves from attacks by Hutu militia and government troops.

There are no clear figures on how many civilians have died so far, but Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said that at least 50 civilians were killed in the North Kivu town of Kiwanja, most of them by Nkunda's forces.

Aid agencies say that renewed fighting between Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) and government forces has displaced at least
250,000 people since late August.

Major operations are underway to deliver emergency aid to the displaced, who are living in camps or sleeping rough in the forests, but fears are rising for their well-being amid an outbreak of cholera.

Nkunda says he is fighting to protect Tutsis from armed Hutu groups who fled to DR Congo after the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

The government is refusing to speak to the rebel general, branding him a killer, and he was not included in regional talks held in Kenya last Friday aimed at addressing the crisis.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame was amongst those at the Kenya talks, which were backed by the UN and the African Union.

The DR Congo accuses Rwanda of backing Nkunda. However, Rwanda denies the charge and says that its neighbour is entirely responsible for solving the conflict.

Nkunda has warned that unless the DR Congo government talks to him directly, his forces - believed to number between 4,000 and 6,000 - will march on the capital Kinshasa.

While there is some scepticism about whether his small force could succeed in taking the distant capital, most believe he is capable of taking Goma.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the DR Congo (MONUC) has said it will defend Goma.

However, MONUC chief Alan Doss has admitted his troops, numbering 17,000 across the whole of the sprawling central African nation, are stretched to their limit by the conflict.

Calls for more UN troops to be deployed have so far not been answered with any firm commitments, although a UN Security Council meeting to approve another 3,000 troops is mooted for late November.

African nations have, however, indicated they would be willing to send in soldiers.

Southern African leaders have said they would send a peacekeeping force if necessary and there have already been reports that Angolan troops have been backing the Congolese army.

There are fears that the whole region could be sucked back into the DR Congo, four years after the official end of a war that involved many regional nations in 2003.

More than 5 million people are estimated to have died as a result of the 1998-2003 war in the resource-rich nation, most of them from hunger and disease.

The conflict is often referred to as the African World War, owing to the large number of different armed forces involved. (dpa)