"We welcome the French offer and this will come in handy if we can't find an African force," Ugandan Defence Minister Amama Mbabazi told reporters in the capital Kampala on Saturday.

"An African force would have an advantage on communication purposes because what is happening in Ituri requires people who can communicate and identify with the rival militia groups, talk to them and convince them to stop the unacceptable fighting," Mbabazi said.

Mbabazi was reacting to a report by France's ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, in which he told the UN Security Council that his country would take part in an emergency military operation in DRC only if neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda asked for the force and assisted in its deployment.

"The force must be requested by the authorities of the DRCongo and other countries in the region, notably Rwanda and Uganda, which must also commit themselves to assisting its deployment," the French ambassador told the Council.

However, Mbabazi promised to cooperate in the deployment of the force, but said that "no formal request has yet been forwarded to Kampala."

"When they come, we shall see how to relate with them," he added.

He also said Uganda hoped the deployment of any force would only be for a short time and that efforts are made to establish a national DRC army under a peace agreement reached in South Africa.

"We presume that the coming in of any force will be for a short period to end the problems there and put on course the local political arrangement under the Ituri Pacification Commission (IPC)," Mbabazi said.

Mbabazi also denied earlier charges in Brazzaville by DRC Foreign Minister She Okitundu that Uganda and Rwanda were still involved in fighting in DRC through proxies.

"Uganda is not involved in any proxy war anywhere. We are not an irresponsible state," Mbabazi said.

But he pointed out that two Ugandan battalions had not withdrawn completely from the war-wracked DRC, saying that heavy rains in the region had bogged them down.

"We still have two battalions in DRC, which will cross over to Uganda in the next few days. They have been slowed down due to waterlogged passages, but I want to assure anybody that no single Ugandan soldier will remain in DRC," Mbabazi said.

Uganda, along with former staunch ally Rwanda deployed troops in the DRC in 1998 to back an insurgency against the government of then president Laurent Kabila.

The two countries fell out over which rebel group to support in the war against the government in Kinshasa, and Kampala and Kigali have been accused of supporting a number of militia groups across Ituri region, still wracked by violence despite the larger war in DRC coming to an end officially in April.

WAR.WIRE