By Joe Bavier

GOMA, Congo, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The United Nations warned thousands of Congolese civilians to leave their homes around a stronghold of renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda as government forces advance on the rebel positions.

The Congolese army is preparing for an expected push on the town of Kirolirwe -- some 35 km (22 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province -- in the heart of Nkunda's fiefdom after four days of heavy fighting further south.

In addition to the town's permanent residents, around 3,000 families, mainly belonging to Congo's Tutsi minority, are living in a refugee camp there, according to the United Nations.

"Yesterday, we went to see the regional governor to ask him to warn the population that there would inevitably be operations in the zones around Kirolirwe and that they had to leave those zones," said General Boubacar Gueye, the military commander of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission (MONUC), on Friday.

MONUC has a mobile operations base in Kirolirwe to protect the displaced but Gueye said the mission and aid agencies were exploring ways to move them away from the expected fighting.

"The humanitarian community, in liaison with MONUC, will propose solutions. ... It's together that this must be prepared, so that this doesn't appear to be a forced displacement but the best solution," he said.

The army launched large-scale military operations against Nkunda's insurgents on Monday, using rockets, tanks, and attack helicopters to drive the rebels from positions west of Goma which they had held for months.

They have been pounding the village of Kibati, just 10 km (6 miles) south of Kirolirwe since Tuesday.

Many of those currently in Kirolirwe fled there believing Nkunda's Tutsi-dominated insurgency would protect them after fighting broke out in late August when the rebels abandoned a peace deal and withdrew from special mixed army brigades.

Nkunda first led around 4,000 fighters into the bush in 2004, claiming he was protecting eastern Congo's Tutsis.

More than 400,000 people have been displaced by fighting between Nkunda's men, the army, Rwandan Hutu rebels, and local Mai Mai militia over the past year in North Kivu, still a pocket of unrest despite the official end of a broader 1998-2003 war. (Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)

AlertNet news is provided by