The move came as any lingering army control in the area around Goma in the country's east disintegrated.

A spokesman for rebel leader Laurent Nkunda said his group would immediately withdraw 25 miles from hot spots around Kanyabayonga and Kiwanja to allow rebels and Congolese army officials to meet today.

The meeting near "will examine the establishment of zones of separation between their two armies, in order to prevent any possibility of confrontation," he said.

Nkunda told UN envoy Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday that he was committed to a cease-fire and UN efforts to end the fighting, but his troops have been carving out an even greater territory in the remote hills north of Goma.

The army's disarray is so dire that Congolese President Joseph Kabila has sacked his army chief.

Congo has the world's largest UN peacekeeping mission, with 17,000 troops, but the peacekeepers have been unable to either stop the fighting or protect civilians.

Nkunda launched a rebellion in 2004, claiming to protect ethnic Tutsis from Hutu militias who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide. But critics say he is more interested in power and mineral wealth than in protecting his people.

Yesterday government soldiers fought with the Mai Mai militia, which normally supports them. It appeared to be taking advantage of the army's retreat to steal the soldiers' weapons.

A Congolese army spokesman said the fighting with the Mai Mai was an "isolated case."

"They are not our enemies," he said. "They are just difficult to control and co-ordinate with."

But UN peacekeeping spokesman Colonel Jean-Paul Dietrich said the Mai Mai's change of loyalty could be more serious.

Around 250,000 people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting. In a sprawling camp of 19,000 people 12 miles west of Goma thousands lined up for hours yesterday for 20-day rations of food: a handful of salt, a few cups of oil and a few pounds of corn flour and beans.