Kampala - Congo has rejected calls for an exclusively African regional force to tackle a raging insurgency in the country's east, accusing neighbouring states of involvement, and ruled out any negotiations with the rebels behind the crisis.

Fighting between M23 rebels and Democratic Republic of Congo government forces has displaced nearly half a million people since April and damaged relations between neighbouring countries in the Great Lakes region that have a history of conflict.

Regional African leaders agreed last month on the idea of a "neutral force" to take on Congo-based rebel groups.

But when heads of state of east and central African nations met this week in Kampala to discuss the eastern Congo crisis, they failed to agree on whether such a force would be drawn from their own countries or have a broader U.N. make-up.

Congolese Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda said Kinshasa would accept soldiers from certain central and east African states as part of an international mission, but not from Rwanda and neighbouring states that he did not specify.

The U.N. Security Council last week demanded an end to foreign support for the Tutsi-led M23 rebels, a rebuke diplomats said was aimed at Rwanda and Uganda.

Rwanda has denied accusations by U.N. officials that its military has provided equipment and recruits for the M23 rebellion. Uganda has rejected similar accusations.