By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council renewed an arms embargo and asset freeze aimed at rebels in Congo for another six weeks on Friday, after U.N. peacekeepers reported clashes that threaten a cease-fire.

The French-drafted resolution said the situation in the mineral-rich central African nation "continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security in the region."

President Joseph Kabila's government, Tutsi insurgents loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda and Mai Mai militia agreed a truce three weeks ago to end months of fighting and draw a line under a decade of violence in eastern Congo.

But the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo said this week it had registered 17 clashes, mainly between Nkunda loyalists and PARECO Mai Mai militia, since the deal was agreed.

The Security Council said it was "condemning the continuing illicit flow of weapons within and into the Democratic Republic of Congo" and expressing "serious concern" about armed groups and militias in eastern Congo, especially in North and South Kivu and Ituri.

In addition to the weapons ban on rebel groups in Congo, the council has imposed a travel ban and asset freeze on individual violators. These were also extended for six weeks.

Under the embargo, the Congolese army is allowed to use weapons in the violent provinces of North and South Kivu and in Ituri for training and assistance, such as the integration of former rebels into the national security forces.

The resolution said the council would review the measures so they could be revised in areas where security has improved.

A Western diplomat from a council member state said the plan was not to lift the sanctions but to simplify the embargo rules to make it easier to understand what is permitted.

Congo hosts the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with more than 17,000 troops. But rebels, renegades and errant soldiers still terrorize civilians in the east of the country long after the end of a 1998-2003 war.

The weapons ban was first imposed in mid-2003 and expanded in subsequent years.

Fighting continues in eastern Congo despite a successful election in 2006 that saw Kabila become the country's first democratically elected president in more than 40 years. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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