By Joe Bavier

KIBATI, Congo, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The European Union appeared hesitant and divided on Monday over a proposal to send an EU rapid reaction force to east Congo, despite a growing clamour for protection from refugees and aid workers.

After more than a month of confused fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province where rebel attacks have displaced a quarter of a million people, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has asked Europe to help out with a temporary force.

This would aim to quickly bridge a delay of at least two months before planned U.N. reinforcements can arrive to beef up an overstretched U.N. peacekeeping force already in Congo, which despite being 17,000-strong has failed to halt the violence.

Belgium, Congo's former colonial ruler, has said it is ready to contribute troops, but says three or four other EU allies should also participate in any temporary European force.

"We are committed to having boots on the ground, whether others can remains to be seen. We would not go alone on a national basis," Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Ouvry told Reuters in Brussels at the weekend.

European ministers are due to discuss the feasibility of an EU troop deployment to east Congo this week.

However, over a month since France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, first suggested the idea, some European powers are known to be reluctant to send troops to the huge, turbulent, mineral-rich central African state.

"We certainly know that both the UK and Germany have been very reluctant to send troops," Anneke Van Woudenberg, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch told Reuters. "It's time for the EU to stop dithering and take action."

Aid agencies have been clamouring for more international military muscle to help secure North Kivu province, where advances and attacks by Tutsi rebels led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda have cut off hundreds of thousands of people.

SQUALID CAMPS

Around the provincial capital Goma, tens of thousands of refugees packed into overcrowded, squalid camps are receiving food and medical assistance but say they still don't feel safe.

"We're suffering. There are lots of problems because of security," said Mukagaga Tegera, her baby daughter tied to her back. She fled to Kibati refugee camp, 10 km (6 miles) north of Goma, after Nkunda's rebels overran her village in October.

"We want peace. Do everything you can to bring us peace. Send French troops. Maybe they can bring peace," she said.

French human rights minister Rama Yade, who visited the refugees at the weekend, told reporters any decision on an EU force would require full consultations within the European bloc.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said that four people were injured on Sunday when police opened fire in Kibati camp, on one occasion to maintain order during food distribution.

The United Nations has accused both sides of grave human rights abuses, including mass killings, rape and looting.

Last week, a group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates and former heads of state called for the EU to immediately send troops to Congo, ahead of the planned 3,000-troop reinforcements.

EU soldiers intervened in Congo in 2003 to halt militia violence in northeast Ituri district that grew out of a broader 1998-2003 war, and to protect successful 2006 elections that returned President Joseph Kabila to office.

But there appears no unanimity on intervening this time.

The British embassy in Congo said Britain wanted to see U.N. reinforcements deploy quickly, but was not in a position to back an EU force with big troop contributions. "The UK is heavily committed elsewhere," an embassy spokesperson said.

Nkunda has threatened war if Kabila's government refuses direct talks. The government wants the rebel chief to return to an east Congo peace pact he signed in January but which he has since repudiated as one-sided. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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