Rwanda faces pressure over rebel advance on Goma

The United States, France and Britain pressured Rwanda over its support for rebels rapidly closing in on eastern Congo's largest city, as government forces struggled to halt an offensive that has forced thousands of civilians to flee.

With fighters from the M23 rebel movement appearing poised to enter the city of Goma, the UN  Security Council met for a day to discuss the fighting, in which three UN peacekeepers have been killed in the last two days.

The rebels have advanced swiftly this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo's mineral-rich but conflict-riven eastern borderlands, raising fears that the fighting could spill over into a regional war.

Rwanda denies accusations by the UN and others that it backs M23.

In addition to the three UN peacekeepers - two South Africans and a Uruguayan - seven more South African soldiers and three from Malawi serving in a separate Southern African mission were also killed this week, South African and UN authorities said.

Condemning "Rwanda's and M23's hostilities on Goma," acting U.S. Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea called for a ceasefire.

France's UN ambassador called for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from Congolese territory.

Three years into their insurgency, the M23 rebels now control more Congolese territory than ever before and have vowed to seize Goma, the capital of North Kivu province and home to about 1 million people.

Addressing the Security Council via video link, the head of the UN mission in Congo Bintou Keita said M23 and Rwanda forces had penetrated the outer edges of the city.

"Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed," she said.

"In other words, we are trapped."

Eastern Congo remains a tinder-box of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 - the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements - says it exists to protect Congo's ethnic Tutsi population.