KIGALI (Reuters) - Congolese rebel leaders said on Tuesday they had agreed to sign a peace deal aimed at ending a year-old civil war that threatened to destabilise the entire region. Six African nations embroiled in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drew up a peace deal last month in the Zambian capital Lusaka but the rebels at first refused to sign because they could not agree on which of two rival factions led their movement. Hoping to break the deadlock, African leaders last week proposed that all founding members of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) – including leaders of both the warring factions – be allowed to sign the Lusaka deal. The largest rebel faction disliked the proposal but finally accepted it after talks with South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma late on Monday. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who heads the rival RCD faction backed by Uganda, said he had agreed to the proposal last weekend and was also ready to go to Lusaka. But efforts to end the chaotic war have appeared close to success several times before only for one side or another to raise new objections at the last minute and carry on fighting. South Africa appeared wary on Tuesday of prematurely claiming victory for its mediation work. Backed by Uganda and Rwanda, the rebels took up arms against Congolese President Laurent Kabila last August and have since seized large swathes of territory in the north and east of the vast central African nation. But the RCD spilt into two factions earlier this year – one backed by Uganda, the other by Rwanda – and the power struggle last week exploded into three days of violence in the rebel-held city of Kisangani. At least 200 people were killed as Ugandan and Rwandan forces battled for control of the city, a centre of Congo‘s lucrative diamond trade, before the two sides agreed a truce and pledged to rebuild their military alliance. Rwanda and Uganda both say they are committed to the Congo peace process and on Tuesday welcomed the breakthrough in persuading the factions they support to sign the Lusaka deal. The Congo war has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and pitted half a dozen African nations against each other with Uganda and Rwanda on one side and Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sending troops to support Kabila. Under the Lusaka deal, all sides would halt their attacks and peacekeeping forces would be deployed to keep them apart and disarm several militia armies operating in the former Zaire. Rwanda and Uganda sent troops to back the rebellion in order to protect their nations from cross-border raids by those militia forces. They include the „Interahamwe“ ethnic Hutu group that led the 1994 genocide of some 800,000 people in Rwanda. Rwanda insists it will not pull out of the Congo until the Interahamwe are disarmed. That will be no easy task for peacekeeping forces sent in to enforce the Lusaka peace deal. There are also likely to be disagreements over political changes giving opposition groups more power inside the Congo, and over the distribution of areas to rebel groups and foreign armies during the transition period.