Q+A-Summit on east Congo: Can it stop the violence?

(Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met African leaders at a summit in Kenya on Friday to try to end the conflict in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo.

The meeting brought to Nairobi the presidents of Congo and Rwanda, Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame, who accuse each other of backing rebel groups in east Congo where rival insurgencies trace their origins back to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

But Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, whose Tutsi fighters have battled government troops in Congo's North Kivu province, was not invited to the summit.

He said on Friday the meeting would not end his rebellion unless it could convince Kabila to negotiate with him -- an issue that could be key to ending the fighting.

Below are some questions and answers about the summit in Nairobi and the prospects for resolving the conflict.

What do Congo and Rwanda want from the summit?

-- Congo has accused its eastern Great Lakes neighbor Rwanda of backing Congolese Tutsi rebels led by renegade General Laurent Nkunda, who has fought government troops in North Kivu province. In October, the Congolese government accused Rwanda's Tutsi-led government of sending its troops into North Kivu to help Nkunda. It provided the U.N. Security Council with photographs of weapons, ammunition, documents and equipment it said proved the Rwandan military support for Nkunda.

Congo wants Rwanda to end all support for Nkunda's rebellion, including preventing Rwandan territory from being used by the insurgents. The U.N. says it has "credible evidence" that some fire came from the Rwandan side of the border during fighting last week between the rebels and the Congolese army.

-- Rwanda categorically denies supporting Nkunda. Rwandan President Paul Kagame says North Kivu's fighting is "95 percent a Congolese problem" which the Congolese government should solve.

Rwanda says Congo has failed to fulfil a deal signed in 2007 to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), whom Nkunda considers sworn enemies of his Congolese Tutsi people.

The FDLR includes soldiers and militiamen who took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

What does Nkunda think of the summit?

-- Rebel chief Nkunda, who denies his 4,000 National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) rebels represent Rwandan interests, has described the Nairobi summit as "a good thing." But he has not been asked to take part.

But he says his fight with the Congolese government is "an internal problem which has to have an internal solution." He has demanded that Kabila's government open direct talks with him on the future of Congo, concentrating on security and good governance. He says he does not want to be president but has made clear he wants to serve his country in some role.

He has threatened to relaunch a military offensive -- suspended in a ceasefire last week -- against the North Kivu provincial capital Goma, if the government refuses to talk.

What has the FDLR said about the Nairobi summit?