United Nations peacekeepers patrol in territory held by Laurent Nkunda's rebel movement on Monday near Rutshuru, 80 kilometres north of Goma, in eastern Congo. (Jerome Delay/Associated Press)As UN aid convoys rolled into eastern Congo, African and Western governments were trying to organize a regional summit in Nairobi, Kenya, later this month to discuss the conflict there that has displaced tens of thousands of people.

The leaders of Congo and Rwanda also agreed Monday to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this weekend or early next week to help resolve the conflict that Rwandan-backed rebel Laurent Nkunda and his men brought to the edge of Goma near the Congo-Rwandan border last week.

"The conflict along the Rwanda and Congolese border has gone on too long and [with] catastrophic consequences," Ban said. "We need peace [and] an end to fighting so that the region's people can enjoy a measure of stability and prosperity."

Earlier on Monday, a United Nations convoy carrying aid workers and medical supplies crossed into the rebel-held zone in eastern Congo to begin helping displaced residents.

The 12 all-terrain vehicles were escorted by two truckloads of UN peacekeepers as the convoy headed toward Rutshuru in the province of North Kivu.

Rutshuru was captured last week by rebels led by Nkunda. The rebels edged toward the provincial capital of Goma before declaring a unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday.

But the offensive had already trigged a humanitarian emergency in the country that some aid officials have called a "catastrophic" situation.

Monday's caravan is carrying water and sanitation equipment, but delivering medical supplies to the hospital in Rutshuru is a priority, said Gloria Fernandez, head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in eastern Congo.

The hospital is the only operating medical facility in the region after many clinics were looted and destroyed amid the fighting, she said.

Both the Congolese army and the rebel leader assured the convoy's safe passage, Fernandez said.

'They go around in circles'

A youth helps a child to drink as they rest along the road during their return home Sunday in Kibumba, north of Goma, in eastern Congo. (Karel Prinsloo/Associated Press)It is the first humanitarian aid delivery behind rebel lines since fighting broke out on Aug. 28.

The fighting in the region has forced people living in the area to move four or five times in the past 10 days, Fernandez said, and many have been going without food or proper shelter.

"They go around in circles ... fleeing the movement of troops and the lines of combat," she said.

Aid workers were reporting that as they moved through the area on Monday they were finding the camps the refugees had gone to abandoned.

"All the camps are empty. They have all left. All the shelters have been destroyed ... nothing remains," Francis Nakwafio Kasai, a field officer with the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Reuters.

Humanitarian workers are trying to establish whether the camps' occupants were expelled or have fled, Kasai said.

Some may have moved to safer areas or returned home, he said.

Since Thursday, the day after the ceasefire, streams of refugees have thronged the roads around Goma, lugging bundles of belongings and guiding livestock.

The UN refugee agency has estimated at least 50,000 displaced civilians have abandoned the unprotected camps around Rutshuru, which is 70 kilometres north of Goma, and are now roaming the bush.

Sean Rafter, a logistics officer with the British medical charity Merlin, said there is concern that aid workers don't know exactly where all the people have gone.

"People are no longer able to get medical care, food or water," Rafter said. "Until we know their whereabouts, we're very concerned for their welfare."

Another convoy on Tuesday will bring food to the estimated 250,000 refugees displaced by fighting, Fernandez said.

The rebels were also allowing farmers to reach Goma, where trucks packed with cabbages, onions and spinach arrived on Monday.

"Everybody is hungry, everybody," said Jean Bizy, 25, a teacher, who said he had been surviving on wild bananas for days.

More than 2 years of violence

A man brings his children to a clinic of the International Medical Corps as others wait their turn in a displaced people's camp on Monday in Kibati, north of Goma, in eastern Congo. (Karel Prinsloo/Associated Press)

An estimated one million people have been forced from their homes in North Kivu by more than two years of violence.

The conflict is fuelled by festering ethnic hatred left over from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and Congo's civil wars from 1996 to 2002.

Nkunda claims his rebellion aims to defend east Congolese Tutsis.

After a weekend diplomatic shuttle that took foreign envoys to Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania, the French and British foreign ministers called for more international aid and recommended reinforcing the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in the country.

East Congolese refugees have complained the UN force is not protecting them and have attacked peacekeepers amid growing frustration and fear.

Meanwhile the UN has temporarily reappointed Senegalese Lt.-Gen. Babacar Gaye to command peacekeeping forces in Congo after the previous commander resigned last week.

Spain's Lt.-Gen. Vicente Diaz de Villegas had been serving as commander of the force, before announcing he was quitting for personal reasons amid the growing crisis last week as the rebels advanced toward Goma.

Gaye had previously held the position before Diaz from March 2005 until two months ago.

He has been reappointed to the position for six months as the UN looks for a long-term replacement, said spokeswoman Michele Montas.

With files from the Associated Press and Reuters