Ugandan rebel leader 'wounded'

The Ugandan army has failed to defeat the rebels

A senior Ugandan rebel commander has been injured in battles with government troops over the weekend, the authorities have said.

He was named the man as Vincent Otti, second-in-command of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) by army spokesman, Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda.

Otti (left) is one of LRA leader Joseph Kony's (right) closest aides

He said the rebel commander was wounded during a clash in the Gulu district on Saturday.

Brigadier Otti headed an LRA rebel delegation during talks with religious leaders last month in the first move in several years to end the LRA's 15-year rebellion in northern Uganda.

The rebels want to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni's secular government and replace it with a religious one guided by the Biblical 10 commandments.

LRA attacks in northern Uganda have intensified in recent months, after a joint military operation by the Ugandan and Sudanese armies against their bases in southern Sudan.

President Museveni has recently gone to northern Uganda to personally supervise the anti-rebel operations by the army.

But he has also opened the way for peace talks and church leaders have delivered a letter from him to the LRA leadership.