BRUSSELS, March 14 (Reuters) - Human rights group Amnesty International voiced concern on Friday that a Ugandan peace deal sought to avoid the country's obligation to hand over rebel leaders to an international court.

The Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels signed an agreement last month on how to deal with war crimes committed during one of Africa's longest-running and brutal civil wars.

LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is believed to be hiding in remote eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, and two of his lieutenants have been charged with atrocities in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

But the deal stipulates that the Ugandan government will set up special war crimes courts to handle the gravest crimes, while traditional justice would be used for others.

The rebels insist a final peace deal depends on the ICC scrapping war crimes indictments against their three leaders.

In a report, Amnesty International voiced concern that the February deal and an earlier agreement "seek to avoid Uganda's legal obligation to arrest and surrender the LRA leaders to the International Criminal Court."

It said the agreements failed to overcome serious weaknesses in Uganda's justice system and said it was concerned that traditional mechanisms could be used as alternatives to criminal justice.

Speaking in London this week, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said rebel leaders would be allowed to atone for crimes through a traditional "blood settlement", avoiding prison and judgment by the ICC.

Amnesty International said Museveni's comments cast "serious doubt on whether the government intends to implement provisions in the (agreements) for the investigation and prosecution of the LRA leaders" wanted by the ICC.

Led by former altar boy and self-proclaimed mystic Kony, who believes he is possessed by the Holy Spirit, the LRA spread terror in north Uganda and southern Sudan, often targeting civilians and mutilating survivors by slicing off lips and ears.

Thousands of children were kidnapped and forcibly recruited.

Amnesty International said the LRA leaders wanted by the ICC must be immediately arrested and surrendered to the court even if the suspects or Uganda challenged the admissibility of the case in The Hague court.

It urged Uganda to revise its laws to criminalise genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and extrajudicial executions. It also called for full and effective reparations for victims. (Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

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