(Adds State Department quote)

By Jack Kimball

KAMPALA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Ugandan ground forces closed in on Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) bases in northeastern Congo after bombarding the rebels' camps, the army said on Monday, in a push to end one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.

The offensive agreed by Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan, with backing from Washington, began on Sunday with an aerial attack against the camps in the remote Garamba National Park in eastern Congo.

Political analysts say regional governments had lost patience with LRA leader Joseph Kony who has repeatedly failed to sign a peace deal to end fighting in which thousands of people have been killed.

"We can confirm that most of (Kony's) camps have been set on fire," Ugandan army spokesman Major Paddy Ankunda said. "It was an air-led operation, then the ground forces were inserted.

"We had reliable intelligence that they were preparing to attack Uganda ... and also we had the ICC warrants," he said, referring to indictments by the International Criminal Court for Kony and two of his deputies for war crimes.

With details still sketchy, it was not clear whether Kony had been captured or killed, or had escaped. Ugandan government ministers were due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.

A U.S. official who declined to be identified said Washington, which has been pressing for an end to Kony's rebellion, had provided equipment and helped plan the operation.

"We welcome the activities that these countries have taken against the Lord's Resistance Army. All the Lord's Resistance Army has done over the last 20 years has caused havoc in those countries," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood.

UGANDAN-LED MISSION

Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic, has demanded the ICC arrest warrants be dropped before the rebels leave their camps, but analysts said patience was wearing thin.

"Over the last three years Kony has received a lot of carrots but no sticks," said Julia Spiegel at Enough Project, a U.S.-based group campaigning against genocide and war crimes.

Analysts and diplomats said the offensive involved helicopter gunships, jets, ground troops and special forces, guided by intelligence from the Congolese army and U.S. electronic monitoring.

"This was a Ugandan-led mission. The SPLA were on the border and the Congolese had about 2,000 soldiers deployed to the south but it was a couple of hundred Ugandan special forces who went in," said an analyst who was following the situation closely.

"They don't yet know if they got him. If it worked, this could be a good thing."

For two decades, Kony's fighters have waged war against Uganda's government, mutilating victims, displacing nearly two million people and destabilising a swath of central Africa.

After the initial euphoria when a peace process started in 2006, LRA rebels have since run amok in the porous borders of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic, opening a new front in a region racked by insecurity.

Operating from camps in Garamba, the LRA has attacked Congolese villages and towns in recent months. The rebels have killed dozens of civilians and abducted several hundred, including many children. (Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Kinshasa, David Lewis in Abidjan, Skye Wheeler in Juba and the Washington bureau; Editing by David Clarke and Andrew Dobbie)

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