By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Congolese soldiers traded heavy machine gun and mortar fire with fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda on Friday in the worst fighting in three weeks in North Kivu province, the United Nations said. Clashes erupted on Friday morning along the Chandago ridge outside Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) west of the provincial capital Goma, near the Rwandan border. "It was quite heavy," Major P.K. Tiwari, military spokesman in North Kivu for Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission, told Reuters. "The government used multi-barrel rocket launchers and fired 16 to 18 rounds into Nkunda's positions." Fighting stopped around 7 p.m. (1800 GMT). No casualty figures were immediately available. Government forces have battled Nkunda since late August, when he abandoned a January peace deal and pulled thousands of his fighters out of special mixed army brigades. Friday's clashes came after a three week lull following a major government victory over Nkunda which forced the rebels from key positions around the town of Karuba, west of Sake. Nkunda's top military commander, General Bwambale Kakolele, said his fighters were ready to launch a counter-attack. "We reacted today (Friday). If this continues, we will be forced to retake Karuba. And that could be even worse than before," he told Reuters by phone late on Friday. Army officials were not immediately available for comment. Despite historic elections last year, Congo is still struggling to recover from a 1998-2003 war that killed an estimated 4 million, mainly from hunger and disease. More than 370,000 people have fled fighting between soldiers, Nkunda's Tutsi-dominated insurgency, Rwandan Hutu rebels and local Mai Mai militia so far this year. Last month, President Joseph Kabila gave the army the green light for military operations to forcibly disarm Nkunda. However, the offensive has been delayed amid pressure from the United Nations and United States for a peaceful solution. (Editing by Daniel Flynn and Philippa Fletcher)
