By Tim Cocks

KAMPALA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony is willing to face justice at home as an alternative to the International Criminal Court, officials said on Wednesday, in a move that may boost efforts to end a two-decade conflict.

Government officials back from visiting Kony in his hideout also said they had succeeded in opening up a direct phone line between Kony and President Yoweri Museveni -- a development they hoped would speed up peace talks under way in south Sudan.

Peace talks between the two sides resumed last week, nearly a month after the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) walked out, accusing the army of violating an August truce by attacking their fighters in southern Sudan.

But the LRA's top commanders leaders -- who remain at large in jungle hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border -- have said repeatedly they will never sign a final peace deal until the Hague-based ICC drops its indictments against them.

Government district commissioner for Gulu, which was at the epicentre of Uganda's 20-year war, Walter Ochora, told reporters in Kampala that Kony had said he would be willing to face justice for war crimes in Uganda.

"We are ready for accountability in Uganda where we can put our case and the government put their case," Ochora quoted Kony as saying. "We shall talk freely and disclose all."

LRA officials were not immediately available for comment.

Local politicians in the war-torn north have advocated traditional "Mato Oput" justice for the LRA leaders, who are accused of killing civilians, rape, torture, mutilation and abducting children to swell their ranks.

"According to Kony, the ICC has been prejudiced and has not given him a hearing because he is not in power," Ochora said. "It is the weak facing justice while the powerful are left unmolested."

But a government-appointed lawyer who joined the delegation to consult Kony on the implications of the ICC indictments said he noticed a shift in tone, with the LRA leaders relaxing earlier demands that the indictments be scrapped.

"This time round I could see they had come to terms with the fact that they could not wish the ICC away," lawyer Owiny-Dollo said. "The debate has shifted from 'you must withdraw the charges'. ... We have moved the issue sideways."

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