A report by the human rights organisation says that since the beginning of August, thousands of people have been massacred, raped or abducted.

It also says both sides have been recruiting child soldiers.

At least six foreign armies are now embroiled in the war in Congo.

Amnesty has appealed to foreign governments to stop supplying weapons to the warring parties, which they say could fuel further atrocities.

Ethnic incitement

Rebels are also accused of atrocities

Amnesty accuses the Congolese authorities and the state-run media of making inflammatory statements that have incited government supporters to attack Tutsi civilians purely on the basis of their ethnic origin.

It also documents massacres which it says were carried out by government soldiers and their supporters.

It says that in mid-August at least 77 unarmed Tutsi civilians were killed in the eastern town of Kalemie, and another 100 in the village of Viura near Moba.

Nuns massacred

Amnesty also details abuses by rebel fighters and their supporters - including the Rwandan army.

It says that in late-August, rebels massacred hundreds of people in the parish of Kasika, apparently in revenge for the death of about 50 rebel soldiers.

Amnesty says the Kasika dead included three nuns, a priest, 37 worshippers who were gunned down inside a Roman Catholic church and a pregnant woman who had had her stomach cut open.