Warring sides in Congo agreed yesterday on the formation of a unified military, resolving one of the last major sticking points in the central African nation's peace agreement, a UN envoy said.

　　Moustapha Niasse, special envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the government and two main rebel groups agreed to divide major military posts.The development paved the way for a new national unity government to be formed "very soon," Niasse said.

　　The government retains the top post of military chief of staff along with the head of naval forces.

　　The two major rebel forces will each receive one of the other top posts. The Congolese Rally for Democracy will appoint the head of ground forces while the Congolese Liberation Movement gets the chief of air forces.

　　A government negotiator, Vital Kamerhe, said the concessions were necessary for the country.

　　"We have minimized the risks (of war) by accepting the loss of a small post in forming an army for all Congolese," Kamerhe said.

　　Congo's government and rebel groups signed a December power-sharing according meant to lead Congo out of a devastating 5-year-old war and into democracy. Control of the military had been one of the major contentions blocking the transition government called for in the accord.

　　Aid groups say the war has killed more than 3.3 million people, most through hunger and disease.

　　Earlier yesterday, the largest Congolese rebelsgroupssaid insurgents would begin withdrawing from east-ern Congo, in line with an agreement to end fighting in the region.

　　The Congolese Rally for Democracy will begin withdrawing from three towns in North Kivu province it seized earlier this month from a smaller rebel faction, said Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, a spokesman for the larger group.

　　The smaller faction has allied itself to the Congolese government, and its fighters, along with government forces, also will begin pull back from positions in the region, the spokesman said from rebel headquarters in Goma, in eastern Congo.

　　The withdrawals are in line with a June 19 agreement signed by the two rebel factions and the government to end weeks of fresh fighting.

　　Congo's war erupted in August 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda sent in troops to back rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila.