Talk or I restart war, Congo rebel tells government

Since 2006 elections that returned Kabila to power, hopes rose that the vast central African nation had finally left behind the 1998-2003 war that left the economy in ruins.

Investor interest in Congo's mineral treasure trove has risen in the last two years. But Central Bank Governor Jean-Claude Masangu said on Tuesday weak demand for metals in the global financial crisis will push economic growth below 10 percent next year and force a scaling back of mining projects.

Masangu listed the humanitarian crisis in the east, and the pressures of military spending, as economic risks.

Rebel chief Nkunda said the negotiations he sought with the government should focus on "good governance and security".

"To become head of state is not my ambition," he said.

Rights groups accuse his rebels of recruiting child soldiers and the ICC has issued a warrant for one of his commanders.

Nkunda backed the idea of a peace summit between Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, but said this could not be expected to solve east Congo's conflict, which nevertheless traces its origins back to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

"There is an internal problem, which has to have an internal solution," Nkunda said.

At the Mugunga refugee camp outside Goma, the head of the U.N. Congo mission, Alan Doss, was mobbed by ragged children with swollen bellies calling for food handouts.

Doss said his U.N. force, known as MONUC, which faces calls to be tougher with Nkunda's rebels, had brought in more troops to Goma from other parts of the country. "But we're robbing Peter to pay Paul, MONUC is thinly stretched," he told Reuters.

Although U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is backing what he calls a U.N. "thin blue line against the chaos" in east Congo, a request to the Security Council for urgent reinforcements for the U.N. force has not been immediately met.