UN chief Ban Ki-moon met Rwanda's president here Wednesday in a bid to defuse his government's anger over the leaking of a draft UN report accusing Rwandan forces of war crimes in DR Congo.

Ban told journalists in Kigali after the meeting that both he and President Paul Kagame had been "disappointed" the report outlining atrocities by Rwandan troops had been leaked.

Kagame, who as president is commander in chief of his country's armed forces, had threatened to pull Rwanda's troops out of international peacekeeping missions in Sudan in a signal of Kigali's fury.

"Peacekeeping is a noble cause and I told President Kagame I sincerely hope that Rwanda will continue its excellent, indeed exemplary, work in support of peace and security in the region," said Ban.

"I strongly urged President Kagame to continue such great and noble contributions around the world, particularly when we are going to see a true referendum in Sudan January next year," he said, before flying out of Kigali airport.

Rwanda's Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said earlier that Kagame and his officials would express outrage over the allegations, and Ban appeared to have been given little immediate guarantee in the talks that Rwanda would pull back from its threat.

"We have agreed to continue our dialogue on all these issues when President Kagame visits New York later this month," he said, referring to a summit on the Millennium Development Goals which the Rwandan leader is due to attend.

Mushikiwabo, with whom Ban met Tuesday shortly after his arrival, expressed satisfaction the UN chief had seen fit to fly to Kigali to discuss the issue.

"My government has a very simple demand and that is that our concerns, our worries and indeed our revolt concerning the draft report that was leaked to the media a few weeks back be heard," she told reporters.

"So we are very pleased, we are happy that the secretary general of the UN thought it was important to come here to Kigali and sit with us and hear our concerns, that is what we have discussed".

The draft report seen by AFP accuses Rwandan troops and their allies of staging genocide-style massacres of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1996-97.

"The systematic and widespread attacks described in this report... reveal a number of damning elements that, if they were proven before a competent court, could be classified as crimes of genocide," stated the 600-page probe.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she would publish the comments of the countries concerns in an annex to the report.

Other countries which sent troops into DRCongo, such as Angola, are also targeted in the report, but attention has focused on Rwanda, which has come in for the most severe accusations.

The United Nations last week delayed its publication until October 1 to give Rwanda and other nations more time to comment on the contents.

Kigali has said that if the report was officially published by the UN it would withdraw the some 3,550 troops it has deployed in two separate peacekeeping missions in Sudan.

There are 3,300 Rwandan troops serving with a joint UN and African Union force in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur, UNAMID. Another 256 soldiers serve with UNMIS, which is supporting the implementation of a 2005 peace deal between north and south Sudan.

Ban said he attached particular importance to the "partnership between Rwanda and the United nations.
"This is a relationship I particularly value," he said, praising the performance of Rwandan troops in UN missions as "excellent" and "exemplary".

"Rwandan forces are well trained, they are highly disciplined and they are widely respected for their great contribution for peace and security in the region," Ban said.

(Source: AFP)