Some 280 militiamen have withdrawn from the village of Katoto, in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the face of advancing government troops, a senior military officer said on Friday.

Humanitarian actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must increase efforts to resolve "critical" food shortages and lack of protection for at least 150,000 war-displaced people in Katanga Province, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said.

Describing the Democratic Republic of Congo as being at a ?critical stage? ahead of landmark 18 June elections, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today met officials in the east of the country, saying that he felt Congolese were excited at the prospect of electing their own leaders and ending the long, bloody civil conflict.

United Nations relief officials are calling for stepped-up humanitarian and peacekeeping measures to confront hunger and ?horrific atrocities? in Katanga in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting between the army and Mai Mai rebels has driven over 150,000 people from their homes in the last six months.

Thousands of party supporters of veteran opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi marched through the streets of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, on Wednesday demanding that their Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UPDS) be integrated into the country's election organisational structures.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on Congo's politicians to ensure that their post-war election is inclusive and the results are respected by all parties.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Tuesday for a three-day visit, on the fourth and final leg of his African tour.

A Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, made his first appearance at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Monday, on charges of conscripting children and using them to participate in hostilities during 2002 and 2003.

A Congolese military tribunal has condemned a leader of a former armed group, called Mudundu 40, to five years imprisonment for crimes including the illegal detention of children, the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) said on Monday.

Agricultural officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo have recorded at least 260 chickens and ducks suspected of having died of the avian flu, Agriculture Minister Constant Ndom Nda said on Thursday.