EU resists calls to send troops to east Congo

French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has suggested the EU should do more to help UN peacekeepers in Congo, but there is not enough political will among member states to send an EU battlegroup to the conflict-struck African region.

"It's very difficult to say what we can do outside of diplomatic efforts, efforts at persuasion, and efforts so that peace can be achieved by leaning on the two countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda," Mr Kouchner said on Wednesday (29 October).

Speaking on behalf of the current EU presidency held by France until the end of December, Mr Kouchner had earlier indicated that Paris would support sending a 1,500-strong military group to Congo to help tackle violence there.

But his suggestion did not receive enough support, as "a certain number of countries refused" the idea, he said on Wednesday, according to AP.

"This is really a desperate situation ... I hope that the French presidency will make a proposal in the coming days," he added.

Fresh calls for Europe's response come as fighting intensifies in the east of the vast country, between rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda's ethnic Tutsi group and Rwandan Hutu rebels.

The Congolese government has promised to stop the Hutu fighters - some of whom are accused of taking part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide - but they have failed to do so, the BBC reports.

Some 20,000 people have fled Goma, one of the largest towns threatened to be overrun by Nkunda forces and the UN's mission of 17,000 troops is reported as being stretched to breaking point, with both Congolese President Joseph Kabila and the head of the UN mission urging for more troops to be sent in.

The conflict has already seen reports of atrocious violence, including against children and women, with systematic rape and infanticide used as a weapon of terror against civilian communities.

The UN's Security Council has so far not decided on reinforcements but at its emergency session on Wednesday, the top international institution said it was considering the possibility, while urging all sides to prevent escalation.