FACTBOX-Peace deal aims to end conflict in east Congo

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's government and warring rebel and militia factions signed a peace deal on Wednesday to end fighting in the country's conflict-torn east, government officials and diplomats said on Monday.

Over the past year, fighting in eastern North Kivu province has intensified between government forces and fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda. Nkunda's guerrillas have also clashed with local Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu rebels.

Here are some details about the fighting in the east.

* ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT:

-- The roots of Nkunda's rebellion in North Kivu lie in unhealed ethnic and political tensions that make the racially mixed eastern Congo a regional tinderbox.

-- The presence in east Congo of both Tutsi and Hutu rebels there stemmed from Rwanda's 1994 genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days by the Hutu-led government and ethnic militias.

-- It led to subsequent invasions by Rwandan forces that helped ignite a wider war in Congo from 1998 to 2003.

-- Nkunda led a revolt in 2004 with around 4,000 soldiers and briefly captured Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu. He is the subject of an international arrest warrant for war crimes committed during the brief occupation.

-- Following 2006 elections aimed at drawing a line under the 1998-2003 war in which 4 million people were killed, Congolese President Joseph Kabila promised to bring peace to Congo's east.