PM plea to world over Congo crisis

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The Prime Minister spoke out amid mounting fears of a humanitarian catastrophe in the central African state.

The current conflict in the Congo has its roots in the genocide 14 years ago in neighbouring Rwanda where up to a million people were killed when Hutu extremists turned on their Tutsi neighbours.

"I am very concerned by the situation in the Congo," Mr Brown said. "Thousands have been displaced. We must not allow Congo to become another Rwanda."

But despite Mr Brown's strong words, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has played down the prospect of British troops being sent to the DRC to bolster the United Nations' peacekeeping force.

Mr Miliband flew into the Congo on Saturday with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner in a joint attempt to help find a diplomatic solution to renewed conflict between rebel and government forces.

Earlier, however, Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown had disclosed that contingency plans were being drawn up for the deployment of a European Union force - including UK troops - to support the UN.

However, with UK forces already stretched by fighting on two fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Mr Miliband was quick to pour cold water on the suggestion that British troops could soon be caught up in a new overseas entanglement.

"We are not at the moment looking at sending British troops to join the UN force," he told reporters during a visit to a refugee camp in eastern DRC.

"Seventeen thousand are in the country at the moment. What we do need to do is make sure that those troops are properly deployed in the regions that are under the greatest stress so that the humanitarian aid can get in."