More than 1,000 refugees from northeastern Congo have fled to neighbouring south Sudan after suspected Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels attacked their camp, the UN refugee agency has said.

Some 1,200 Congolese trekked through a remote forest to reach the Yambio region of southern Sudan's Western Equatoria state after the rebels destroyed their homes and abducted children in the Dungu region of Congo, UNHCR said in a statement released yesterday.

"Approximately 1,200 refugees fled to the villages of Gangura and Sakure following attacks by armed groups believed to be LRA fighters around Dungu," the statement said." Refugees gave accounts of abducted children and homes set ablaze in acts of savagery."

But the head of the LRA delegation to the peace talks with the Uganda government, Mr David Nyekorach Matsanga, denied that the rebels are behind the attacks.

"The areas mentioned in the attacks are inhabited by gangsters. We have already written to the DRC President Joseph Kabila about this issue," Mr Matsanga said by telephone last evening. "I spoke to [the LRA leader] Joseph Kony; he told me the attacks are happening outside Garamba Park where the gangsters operate from."

Mr Matsanga said the attacks were not similar to LRA raids as the attackers in this case loot beer and cigarettes, which Kony's fighters do not consume.

Kony, who is indicted by the International Criminal Court along with three of his senior commanders, early this year, declined to sign the comprehensive peace deal with the Uganda government that was reached with his negotiating team after protracted negotiations that started in 2006.

The Congolese refugees said they were forced to trek for four days through a thick jungle and swamps despite heavy rains and floods as the LRA had blocked other routes, French news agency AFP reported.

According to the UNHCR statement, unconfirmed reports indicate that bodies had been seen floating in rivers along the way.