By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - International leaders called on Wednesday for a negotiated solution in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where clashes between the army and soldiers of a dissident general threaten to reignite a volatile region.

Government forces using a helicopter gunship and supported by U.N. peacekeepers have fought thousands of General Laurent Nkunda's troops in North Kivu province in the past week, killing scores of people and sending thousands of civilians fleeing.

The fighting has raised fears of a return to all-out war in eastern Congo, which bore the brunt of a 1998-2003 conflict that sucked in six neighbouring countries and killed some four million people, mainly through hunger and disease.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, the George W. Bush administration's most senior African envoy, called on Wednesday for Uganda, Rwanda and Congo to work together to defuse tensions.

"There needs to be a regional effort. That could be some kind of coordinated operations if necessary," she said on a visit to Kampala for talks with President Yoweri Museveni.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appealed in a statement for all sides to seek a peaceful solution, while humanitarian chief John Holmes, visiting eastern Congo after talks with President Laurent Kabila on Tuesday, warned of "the real danger of another big wave of displacements and humanitarian problems."

Holmes's agency, OCHA, says 224,000 people have been displaced since the start of year in North Kivu, excluding the latest fighting. U.N. officials estimate the clashes have displaced between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians.

Fighting flared last week when Nkunda's troops attacked a military base at Katale, some 60 km (38 miles) from the regional capital Goma, shattering a January ceasefire which integrated them into mixed army brigades.

The Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) claim to have killed 133 of Nkunda's men and lost only 15 troops, U.N. military spokesman Gabriel Debrosse told Reuters, adding he could not verify this.

"During the last week, Nkunda's troops were forced out of three or four positions and the FARDC is still pushing," Debrosse said, adding the army was preparing a new offensive.

ETHNIC CONFLICT

The U.N. mission in Congo has ferried army reinforcements and munitions to the battleground at Masisi, a stronghold of Nkunda. A U.N. source said a Congolese helicopter gunship was attacking hillsides near Nkunda's headquarters on Wednesday.

Rwanda's Tutsi government has been accused of backing Nkunda to pursue its foes in the Forces for the Democratic Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in Congo. The group includes former members of the Hutu Interahamwe militia who fled Rwanda after the 1994 genocide which killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Nkunda, who accuses Kabila of sheltering the FDLR, said the Congo's army killed 23 Tutsi civilians during recent fighting. He told Reuters his troops had retaken Katale and accused the Congolese army of recruiting fighters from the Interahamwe.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande, who flew back to Kigali on Wednesday after talks in Kinshasa, said that any use of Interahamwe mercenaries would constitute a military threat to his country and Rwanda would take the necessary measures.

"We have made it clear before the Congolese government that the best solution to this crisis is a negotiated one," Murigande said, offering Rwandan mediation in any talks.

"But unfortunately in Kinshasa they seem not to be interested in dialogue but rather a military solution," he said.

(Additional reporting by Arthur Asiimwe in Kigali and Tim Cocks in Kampala)

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