"The military command has received the green light to begin to prepare for disarmament, by force if necessary, of Mr Nkunda and all those who have stayed with him," Kabila said in the Nord-Kivu provincial capital, Goma.

"Mr Nkunda is a criminal ... There has been a warrant issued for his arrest" since September 2005, Kabila told a press conference after more than a month of clashes in the province between the army (FARDC) and ex-general Nkunda's troops.

Kabila, who was in Nord-Kivu from Sunday to assess the military situation and left for the capital after his briefing, gave no deadline for an army offensive, but said "it won't necessarily be tomorrow or the day after."

Nkunda's men meanwhile took a combative stand.

"We believe that they are going to attack us. We are ready to defend ourselves," Nkunda aide, 'general' Kakolele Bwambale, told AFP on telephone.

The government and Nkunda, who commands about 5,000 armed men, are under pressure from the UN mission in DR Congo (MONUC) and the United States to avoid a bloodbath. Some 15,000 troops have been deployed around Nkunda in the east of the country.

The UN estimates that 750,000 villagers have been displaced by violence involving the army, Nkunda's forces and other bands that harass them for food.

UN agency World Food Program (WFP) meanwhile said it would resume its feeding programme for the thousands displaced by the violence. Food distribution was stopped on October 10 in some areas because of heavy fighting.

"Every day Congolese civilians continue to flee the violence in Nord-Kivu," the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said, adding that in had registered 500 newly displaced in the area over the past 10 days.

The government this month issued a fresh appeal for followers of Nkunda, an ethnic Tutsi officer, to surrender for demobilisation and integration into either the army's ranks or civilian life.

Nkunda is wanted for war crimes allegedly committed in June 2004 when his forces briefly seized control of Sud-Kivu province's capital Bukavu before they were driven out by UN troops, who now number about 4,500 in the combat zone.

UN staff said Wednesday that they had no reports of clashes in Nord-Kivu, but recent weeks have seen numerous violations of a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Nkunda has proclaimed himself guardian of minority Tutsis in the east of the country, still emerging from the 1998-2003 civil war that drew in more than half a dozen other African armies, including Rwanda, with which he has had ties.

"It's this question of Mr Nkunda that threatens to wrench us back to the year 1998 with war across the region," Kabila said.

"It's this man who swiftly needs to be controlled (...) for all the region and for the population," he added, saying that "more than 1,000 young people have surrendered in these past few weeks and that's the trend." Kabila said 50 Nkunda soldiers had come forward in the previous two days.

Regional experts say the Kivu problem will never be settled until a solution is found regarding the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu force installed in eastern DR Congo since the 2004 genocide in the neighbouring country.

Humanitarian agencies fear a disaster if denied access by the violence, but UN peacekeeping commander, General Bababar Gaye, said the FARDC had full support, with "not less than 12,000 tonnes of munitions" flown in, 100 wounded evacuated, and regular air reconnaissance.

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