Kampala — Donors have delivered $7.7m to fund the Juba talks between the Government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, a UN official has said.

The funds from Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and the European Union's Humanitarian Aid Office will be channelled through the UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs.

"The budget proposed to donors in July 2007 has been fully funded," said the official.

Donors formed the Juba Initiative Fund to raise money for the peace process, which started in July last year.

It was not clear whether the donors had agreed to give the LRA an additional $800,000 they asked to hold a rare public consultation, the first since it was created in 1988 by leader Joseph Kony.

The LRA has said it would not resume talks until it gets the $800,000, which it reduced from an initial demand of $2m and was not part of the $7.7m budget.

Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor expressed concern that funds and food aid, supplied to the LRA, was being diverted and used to re-arm.

"Joseph Kony and the three other indicted commanders have regained strength and financial means," Luis Moreno-Ocampo told diplomats in The Hague. "We ask partner states to monitor with utmost vigilance supply networks, possible diversion of aid and funds to the benefit of the sought individuals."

Meanwhile, LRA leader Joseph Kony has reshuffled his negotiation team to the talks, dropping the deputy head of delegation, Josephine Apire.

Apire is notorious for refusing to shake President Museveni's hand when he visited Juba in October last year.

She has been replaced by David Nyekorach Matsanga, who was already a member of the peace team and is also a public relations adviser to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

The LRA delegation is expected in Uganda this week for consultations with the war-affected communities, according to Henry Okello-Oryem, the foreign affairs state minister. He noted that the Government was concerned about the reported split between LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti.

Otti has not been heard or seen for weeks following an alleged disagreement with his boss over the peace process and funds for the consultation.

"We are not jubilating about the in-fighting in the LRA and there should be no split. We want to negotiation with one LRA, not two or three groups," Oryem said.

According to the State Minister for Defence, Ruth Nankabirwa, some LRA commanders have contacted the Government seeking assistance to enable them leave Garamba National Park in eastern Congo and return home.

"But if I disclosed their names, Kony would immediately kill them," the minister, who just returned from a visit to Juba, told The New Vision.

Information on what exactly is going on within the LRA is likely to come from Opiyo Makasi, the operations commander who escaped two weeks ago and was handed over by the Congolese authorities to the UN last week.

According to Oryem, Makasi was flown from Kinshasa to Beni over the weekend. "In Beni, where the Amnesty Commission has an office, he will be asked to fill in the amnesty forms and be granted a certificate. He should be here on Tuesday."