KINSHASA, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Renewed fighting has broken out between government forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and rebels loyal to dissident Tutsi general Laurent Nkunda in the northeastern town of Kanombe, threatening a struggling peace process.

    Col. Delphin Kayimbi, commander of the eighth military region, confirmed the fighting to the press, and accused the rebel forces of Nkunda's National Council for People's Defense (CNDP) of having violated a recent peace agreement.

    The rebels attacked the positions of a Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) brigade on Thursday morning, leaving some soldiers injured and displaced, Kayimbi said.

    However, CNDP spokesman Rene Abandi blamed the army for the violence, saying FARDC had attacked rebel positions in retaliation for a CNDP flag being placed beside the DRC's national flag.

    The dissident general has been leading a rebellion against the government in eastern DRC since 2004. He says his aim is to defend the Tutsi ethnic minority.

    The CNDP also accuses the DRC government of doing nothing to combat a Rwandese Hutu rebel group, the FDLR (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda), whose elements are accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

    During a conference in January on peace, security and development in the DRC's North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, an initiative of President Joseph Kabila, the CNDP and other militia groups signed an Act of Commitment in which they agreed not "to resort to arms and not to go to war to defend their cause."