By Kari Barber

KINSHASA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has called a peace summit for Dec. 27 to try to end fighting between Tutsi dissidents, government forces and other fighters in its North Kivu province, officials said on Thursday.

Several mediation efforts and military campaigns have failed to end years of fighting in the eastern province, where the presence of Rwandan Hutu fighters accused of leading their country's 1994 genocide has provoked conflicts, including Congo's 1998-2003 war.

Renegade Congolese Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda, who drove back an army offensive this month with his 4,000 rebels, says he is fighting to protect his minority community from oppression and Hutu attacks.

Next week's conference, spearheaded by Congo's Interior Ministry and National Assembly, aims to bring all sides together in North Kivu's provincial capital, Goma.

"We have a problem with Laurent Nkunda here in the east and for the security of region. He needs to be there at the conference," said Clovis Muni, who is organising the conference.

Nkunda's camp said it had not decided whether to attend.

"We haven't decided yet because we haven't received an official invitation. Once we receive an invitation, we will decide," said Nkunda spokesman Rene Abandi.

Nkunda would be formally invited next week, Muni said.

Leading foreign diplomats, including U.S. State Department Special Envoy Tim Shortley, met in Goma last Sunday and agreed to create a task force within a week to follow implementation of a November agreement struck in Nairobi.

Under that deal, Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers agreed that Congo's army would forcibly disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in the east, while Rwanda's Tutsi-led government would seal the border to prevent Nkunda's forces receiving trans-frontier assistance.

A Congolese army offensive succeeded in wresting several strategic localities from Nkunda's forces in early December, only for the dissidents to win them back in a counter-attack.

The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people, adding to an estimated 800,000 displaced people in North Kivu, over half of whom have left their homes this year alone.

Five humanitarian organisations including U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR began a two-day suspension of their activities in North Kivu on Thursday to press their demands to the Kinshasa government for greater security and protection.

"There have been increasing attacks on humanitarian organisations over the past few months," Patrick Lavand'homme, of U.N. humanitarian coordination agency OCHA.

"It has been quite violent with guns and people shooting, so the humanitarian organisations want to make the point to the Congolese government and other authorities that we will not work in such an environment," Lavand'homme said. (Editing by Alistair Thomson)

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