Rutshuru, DR Congo - Kenya announced on Wednesday it would host a UN-backed summit on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo as rebels and pro-government militia clashed for a second successive day, rocking a fragile ceasefire.
"There will be a summit in Kenya on Friday," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula announced.
"The agenda will be... the fighting in eastern DR Congo and how to resolve it," he added.
Laurent Nkunda's rebel forces and Mai Mai militia battled for the second day running in the eastern province of Nord-Kivu, sources on both sides said, halting aid distribution operations and jeopardising a fragile ceasefire that has held for the past week.
The fighting near the northeastern town of Rutshuru forced aid workers and UN agencies to suspend their activities and withdraw personnel late on Tuesday, just a day after bringing the first aid convoy in a week to the rebel-held territory.
By mid-morning the situation was relatively calm, an AFP correspondent noted.
Concern is growing for the plight of more than a million people who have now been forced to flee their homes in the eastern DR Congo.
The International Red Cross on Wednesday said it had started distributing 365 tons of food to tens of thousands of displaced people around Kibati, just north of the regional capital Goma, which is surrounded by Nkunda's forces.
Max Hadorn, the head of the ICRC delegation described the situation there as "terrible."
"In the Kibati camps, I saw people in extreme distress, including women and children, and elderly people," he said.
The United Nations Children's Fund said on Monday more than 100 000 people had been driven from their homes by last week's rebel offensive, with more than a million homeless in Nord-Kivu province since Nkunda launched his rebellion in late 2006.
Nkunda's men "opened the hostilities this morning in response to Tuesday's fighting," Mai Mai spokesperson Didier Bitaki said.
"They are trying to retake lost positions," he added.
A military source with MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, who asked to remain anonymous, said fighting had resumed at around 5.00am (03.00 GMT).
Bertrand Bisimwa, spokesperson for Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) spoke of a mopping up operation around Kiwanja, the scene of Tuesday's fighting.
It lies five kilometres north of Rutshuru, one of the main towns captured by the rebels in last week's fighting. Rutshuru is about 80 kilometres north of the regional capita Goma.
Shops in Rutshuru were open and rebel soldiers posted at different points of the town, but occasional heavy artillery fire could be heard nearby and some rebel soldiers were moving on the road between the two towns.
In Kiwanja itself by 10.30am (08.30GMT) the main street was completely deserted, an AFP journalist noted, and no gunfire could be heard.
Spent cartridges were scattered on the ground and a group of rebel soldiers patrolled a street outside a small shopping centre.
Rwanda's Tutsi-dominated government has been accused of supporting Nkunda's rebels, a charge vehemently denied by Kigali.
Kenya's foreign minister said he expected the presidents of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and South Africa to attend the summit, as well as officials from the African Union and United Nations, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Officials from "some selected Western countries" were also expected, he said.