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By Joe Bavier

GOMA, Congo, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Congo's government will meet eastern Tutsi rebels in Kenya on Monday for their first direct talks to formalise a ceasefire and discuss a peace process after weeks of fighting, the foreign minister said on Friday.

Alexis Thambwe Mwamba made the announcement after a meeting with his Rwandan counterpart Rosemary Museminali which also agreed on a joint plan of operations to disband Rwandan Hutu rebels based in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless east.

Tutsi insurgent leader General Laurent Nkunda has been demanding direct talks with President Joseph Kabila's government as a condition for ending his revolt in North Kivu province, where hundreds of thousands of people have fled fighting.

The announcement of talks followed weeks of diplomacy led by Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president and now a U.N. special envoy, and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa.

"A meeting between representatives from the Democratic Republic of Congo and from the CNDP, under the auspices of United Nations and African Union facilitators, will take place on December 8, 2008 at Nairobi, Kenya to formalise the ceasefire and discuss a peace plan for eastern Congo," Mwamba said.

Nkunda has justified his rebellion by saying his fighters were battling to protect fellow Tutsis from the Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, some of whom took part in Rwanda's 1994 genocide slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Since late August, Nkunda's battle-hardened guerrilla force has routed the government army and seized swathes of North Kivu in a major embarrassment for Kabila, who won 2006 elections intended to end decades of chaos, war and mismanagement.

Congo's government had resisted direct talks with Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebels, insisting instead that they return to a wider peace pact signed in January with several armed groups.

But the military defeats have left it with few options.

Few details were given about the planned talks but Western diplomats said that they would be conducted by delegations and not Kabila and Nkunda personally.

"It is a major step -- that's why I am optimistic," Roland van de Geer, the European Union's special envoy for the Great Lakes, said after the announcement.

Jean-Michel Kambasu Ngeve, the No. 2 in Nkunda's rebel CNDP, which wants to discuss Congo's security and the role of ethnic minorities in government, called it "a step towards peace".

"TIRED OF WAR"

"This is a good thing. We are tired of this war. Our wish is for this to end," said Benoit Kawate, a plumber in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Nkunda declared a ceasefire after marching to the gates of Goma in late October. But his men continue to battle various pro-government militias roaming the east, which is rich in gold, diamonds, coltan and tin.

Some 250,000 people have been displaced by the violence, which the U.N. says has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said it cannot account for more than 90,000 of those who fled the violence.

Great Lakes neighbours Congo and Rwanda accuse each other of backing rebels hostile to their governments. Kigali has fought in two Congo wars since 1996, ostensibly to hunt down the Hutu rebels.

But after several failed attempts to resolve the FDLR question, the countries now appear to be moving to improve ties.

The jointly agreed operations against the FDLR would start in the first quarter of next year and Rwandan soldiers would be involved in planning and intelligence but no troops would be on the ground. Those FDLR fighters who refused to demobilise and return to Rwanda would face military action.

U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, who have been unable to stop the current violence and are awaiting another 3,000 reinforcements, would be involved, Western diplomats said.

Although at 17,000 strong it is the world's largest peacekeeping force, the U.N. Congo mission is stretched.

The FDLR vowed on Friday to fight back if attacked and said dialogue with the government in Kigali was the only solution.

But Rwanda's Museminali said talks were not an option and Congo and Rwanda were ready for action.

"FDLR ... can never negotiate with Rwanda. We have made it very, very clear. This is not a political organisation, it's a killer organisation," she said.

(Editing by Michael Roddy) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Reporting by Joe Bavier; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Pascal Fletcher)

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