Gen Laurent Nkunda, the leader of the main rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has been arrested, the military says

The rebel leader was arrested in Rwanda after he tried to resist a Rwandan-Congolese military operation, the operation's joint command said.

Some 3,500 Rwandan troops crossed the border to help Congolese forces disarm Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels there.

Gen Nkunda has been leading the rival CNDP Tutsi insurgency.

The CNDP launched a major offensive in August, which displaced more than a quarter of a million people and raised fears of a wider regional war.

Gen Nkunda and his group says they are fighting to protect the Tutsi community from attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels based in DR Congo, some of whom are accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide.

The Congolese government has often promised to stop the Hutu forces from using its territory, but has not done so.

However, others see the CNDP as a Rwandan proxy and the biggest reason why DR Congo is yet to benefit from landmark elections in 2006 intended to draw a line under decades of conflict.

Human rights group have accused CNDP forces, along with those of the government, of numerous killings, rapes and torture.

Talks in Kenya aimed at ending the conflict became deadlocked last month, with UN mediator Olusegun Obasanjo complaining that the CNDP's negotiators lacked the authority to make concessions.