Leaders of Africa's Great Lakes region on Saturday unveiled a plan for the M23 rebels to pull out of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The leaders in their communique issued at the end of a day-long summit in the Ugandan capital Kampala said the M23 rebels must stop expanding the war forthwith and stop talking of overthrowing an elected government.

"M23 to withdraw from current positions to the ground of tactical importance not less than 20 km north of Goma," the communique said.

The leaders agreed that at the Goma airport, a composition of the Neutral Force, the DRC force and the M23 members would be deployed.

They also agreed that one battalion of the DRC force and the DRC national police force would be deployed in Goma.

"The police that were disarmed in Goma by M23 are to be re- armed so that they resume duty," the communique said.

The UN peacekeeping force will provide security in the neutral zone between Goma and the areas occupied by the M23, the leaders suggested in the document.

The pullout process will be supervised by the chiefs of defense staff of Rwanda and the DRC and led by the chief of defense forces of Uganda.

The M23 rebels earlier refused a directive from the leaders to pull out of Goma, vowing to fight if the DRC government does not negotiate with them.

The leaders meeting here urged the DRC government to listen and resolve the grievances of the M23.

The meeting was attended by Ugandan Presidents Yoweri Museveni, DRC President Joseph Kabila, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The East African Community and the Southern African Development Cooperation also have representation at the summit.

Uganda, as the chair of the 11-member International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, has since July been mediating to help find a solution.

Since the M23 rebellion emerged in April, fighting in the eastern DRC has internally displaced 475,000 people and forced 75, 000 others to seek refuge in neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. Endit

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