The soldiers have been fighting regular troops since Wednesday in Bukavu -- which lies next to the border with Rwanda -- where at least 14 people are reported to have died in the clashes.

Sporadic gunfire and mortar explosions resumed Friday, although the confrontations were less intense than on the previous two days.

"The helicopter opened fire on a position held by Colonel (Jules) Mutebusi, where his men were threatening civilians," Sebastian Lapierre, a spokesman for MONUC, the UN military mission in DRC, told AFP by telephone from Bukavu.

He did not give any details of possible casualties from the incident or say exactly where in Bukavu it took place.

Mutebusi, a former commander of a rebel group that joined the DRC transitional government last year, was suspended from the new national army last month after earlier violence.

"General Jan Isberg, who comands MONUC's brigade in the (eastern) Kivu provinces, has just given an ultimatum to Mutebusi for him and his men to return to their headquarters with their weapons before 6:00 am Saturday," added Lapierre.

He said anyone who did not comply "would be immediately arrested by MONUC, by force if necessary."

Seven civilians, including two children and the head of the local court of appeal were among the 14 casualties of the fighting, according to Lapierre.

The regular army said five of its men had been killed while Mutebusi, a former rebel commander who was suspended from his post as deputy commander of the 10th military region because of his involvement in earlier clashes, told AFP he had lost two men.

The streets of Bukavu were empty as most residents were holed up in their homes. Electricity was cut and shops in some areas near the Rwandan border had been looted.

Several former rebel movements joined the DRC government last year and their fighting units were integrated into the army.

One military source said the fighting followed the refusal of Mutebusi's men to allow regular army units to patrol in areas under his control.

A Bukavu resident said two of these men had been arrested by the army shortly before the shooting broke out.

The region's military commander, Felix Budja Mabe, placed the blame squarely on Mutebusi on Thursday, saying some of his men "wanted to cross the border into Rwanda (on Wednesday) evening but the police there stopped them and the men opened fire."

On Friday Mutebusi dismissed this as an excuse to "take on the Banyamulenge", a term used for Congolese Tutsis living in eastern DRC whose Congolese nationality has frequently been questioned by authorities in the capital, Kinshasa.

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