WASHINGTON: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed a peace agreement in Washington on Friday to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerillas and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth.

The two foreign ministers signed the deal brokered by the United States, Qatar and the African Union in the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who acknowledged there was `more work to be done` but said the deal will let people `now have dreams and hopes for a better life.` The agreement comes after the M23 rebel group, an ethnic Tutsi force widely linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the long-turbulent and mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma.

The deal does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 but calls for Rwanda to end `defensive measures` it has taken. Rwanda has denied directly supporting the M23 rebels but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

The agreement calls for the `neutralisation` of the FDLR. `The first order of business is to begin implementing the concept of operations for the neutralisation of the FDLR, to be accompanied by a lifting of Rwanda`s defensive measures,` Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said.-AFP