KINSHASA, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Congo's army said on Monday it had launched strikes against renegade fighters in the volatile eastern border region with Rwanda, killing at least 28 insurgents during clashes lasting several hours.

Government forces launched the assault on fighters loyal to dissident Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda late on Sunday near Karuba, some 30 km (19 miles) west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasted several hours with clashes continuing throughout Monday morning, army officials said.

"Up to now these are preventative strikes designed to allow us to control the terrain," the army's commander of operations, Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, told Reuters, adding that the bodies of 28 Nkunda loyalists were recovered following the attacks.

The clashes came as the foreign ministers of Rwanda and Congo met in Kinshasa to discuss the unrest.

No independent verification of the death toll was immediately available.

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