Kampala — A TOP American diplomat in Africa said on Tuesday that Washington wants to get rid of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels by the end of this year.

Speaking at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said the LRA rebels needed to be stopped, and this meant capturing their leaders soon.

"There's this nasty little group called the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda which is just creating havoc, killing kids, kidnapping people and we have to take care of that problem, and we need to work together to do so," she said.

"Certainly it's going to be a priority of President Bush's administration to get rid of the LRA before the end of this year, if we can," Frazer said.

The LRA has waged war against President Yoweri Museveni's government for two decades and began targeting foreigners last year -- apparently in reprisal for arrest warrants issued in October for their leaders by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, the LRA has long terrorised northern Uganda from bases in neighboring southern Sudan and last year a group of LRA fighters crossed into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Because of their own move out of northern Uganda and southern Sudan into the region, other countries have a stake in what happens to (Vincent) Otti and Kony," said Frazer.

"And I say, as ICC indicted war criminals, they need to be captured and turned over to the court." One of the indicted rebels, Onen Kamdulu is enjoying the custody of the Ugandan government where he is being used as a State witness in the on-going treason trial of opposition chief Kizza Besigye and 22 others.

The cult-like group has never given a clear account of its political aims, but is notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping thousands of children who are forced to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

Kony's deputy Otti was blamed for the murder of eight U.N. troops earlier this year in Congo's Garamba National park.

Frazer's comments in London came a day after Britain said Uganda's civil war had become a regional problem and needed action from its neighbors.

Frazer said getting rid of the LRA leaders was a crucial part of a three-pronged strategy to end the conflict in northern Uganda, as the rebel movement should then wane.

The two other elements were to urge the Ugandan government to reconcile with the Acholi community and to get support for the people displaced by the war.

"You decapitate the LRA, i.e, get rid of the leadership -- Kony and Otti and others -- and I think the body of the LRA will return to its society ... you need a coming in."

President Yoweri Museveni announced on Tuesday that Uganda and Southern Sudan have given LRA rebel Joseph Kony until July to end hostilities.

The President disclosed this at a meeting with the visiting British Overseas Development Minister, Mr Hillary Benn, at State House, Nakasero on Tuesday.

Daily Monitor exclusively reported on Tuesday that Kiir delivered a request for peace talks from Kony to Museveni at State House during their meeting, a day after the president was inaugurated.

A statement from the British High Commission released yesterday quoted Benn as saying;

"We agreed that there must be regional cooperation to tackle the threat of LRA, which who would be helped by the appointment of a special UN envoy for the region."