Britain has issued an appeal for all parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo to work for peace and security in the troubled region.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called for serious engagement from all sides in talks currently under way in Kenyan capital Nairobi to find a resolution to the latest round of violence.
The United Nations mission in the Congo, MONUC, reported new clashes between the Congolese army and rebel militias around the town of Goma, where around 250,000 people have been displaced by fighting over recent weeks.
Angolan troops have recently joined Government forces near the eastern city, in a move which it is feared may be seen as provocative by Rwanda, which has been accused of offering support to rebels led by Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda.
In Nairobi, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is chairing a peace summit with Congolese President Joseph Kabila and six other African leaders.
In a statement released by the Foreign Office, Mr Miliband said: "The situation in the eastern DRC remains unstable. The need for a political solution to the region's problems is urgent and I am grateful to the African Union, regional leaders and the UN Secretary General for their leadership and efforts to kick-start this process.
"(The) summit in Nairobi, which Lord Malloch-Brown is attending on my behalf, provided that impetus.
"Continued fighting in the region in the last few days, despite the ceasefire, creates real danger that violence will escalate.
"MONUC's efforts to maintain security on the ground have helped, but humanitarian agencies continue to face challenges in getting assistance to those affected by the recent fighting.
"I appeal to all parties involved to engage seriously and work towards peace and security for the people of the region."
Fighting between rebels Nkunda and Congolese forces has spread along the hilly, mineral-producing border region with Rwanda, uprooting hundreds of thousands of people and creating international alarm.
One of the key issues leaders meeting in Kenya need to resolve for a lasting solution to the festering conflict is the presence in eastern Congo of Rwandan Hutu rebels who took part in the 1994 genocide.
Over the past four years there have been various ceasefires and agreements to disarm all militant groups in the region, but little progress has been made on the ground and there have been frequent campaigns by Nkunda.
He justifies his revolt as a legitimate one to protect ethnic Tutsis in Congo from the Hutu rebels, known as the FDLR, and says he wants talks with Congo's President Joseph Kabila.
The region is also rich in minerals, such as coltan, which is used in mobile phones, making control of the remote terrain, far from Congo's capital Kinshasa, lucrative.
Mr Ban held bilateral meetings with the African leaders today and said before the summit he would encourage Kabila and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame "to find a path to peace".
"We just want Rwanda to stop meddling in the affairs of DRC, and show us the proof," Mr Kabila's spokesman Kudura Kasongo told reporters at the summit, saying that talks between Kabila and Nkunda were "not on the agenda".
Rwanda denies supporting Nkunda and accuses Congo of backing the Hutu rebels in the east.
While the leaders wrestle with their entrenched political differences, calls for more peacekeepers in the region are growing around the world to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
Aid agencies are scrambling to provide food and medical care to 200,000 refugees crammed into camps around and just north of Goma, near the border with Rwanda.
But relief workers say that many more out of over 1 million displaced civilians in North Kivu are out of reach of help, either cut off by fighting, hiding in the bush or isolated in zones controlled by rebel and militia forces.
Mr Ban has asked the Security Council to approve a "surge" of 3,000 extra troops for the UN Congo mission, MONUC, which at 17,000 strong is already the largest in the world.
But the one thing that desperate refugees and aid agencies in North Kivu province are clamouring for -- more security and protection from attacks by marauding rebels and soldiers -- is the one which the world seems less inclined to provide quickly.
With contributor governments distracted and squeezed by the global financial crisis, UN officials say mustering the reinforcements for MONUC could take weeks, maybe months.
Instead, the European ministers and other international figures have been calling for a redeployment of the existing UN peacekeeping force and a strengthening of its mandate to allow it to take on the armed groups roaming across North Kivu.
Reuters