The Special Representative of the Secretary General for the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Alan Doss, has been giving journalists more details of what's been happening on the ground in North Kivu.

In an hour long question and answer session with journalists in New York via video conference from Kinshasa, Mr Doss explained that the situation on the ground is changing by the hour. He went on to give further details about the background to military, diplomatic and political moves to try and bring an end to the latest fighting.

He said that there had been attacks by CNDP forces led by Laurent Nkunda, and then counter attacks by the Congolese Army, the FARDC. He also said that MONUC had had to intervene on a number of occasions.

"It appears that the CNDP is trying to attack both Goma and Rutshuru and possibly other population centres. And in the exercice of our mandate, we have intervened to prevent that from happening", he said.

The Special Representative reiterated that MONUC's principal concern was to protect civilians caught up in the fighting, especially those in larger population centres. He said while the figures were confusing, he estimated at least one hundred thousand people had been displaced in the region.

Mr Doss took questions from a number of journalists based at UN Headquarters in New York including those representing Radio France International, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Al jazeera English and the BBC.