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The armed groups in eastern Nord-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed a ceasefire deal Wednesday, officials said.

Kambasu Ngeze, delegation chief for the Tutsi renegade ex-general Laurent Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), was the first among the armed groups to sign the deal, “act of engagement,” in Goma, capital of Nord-Kivu on the last day of a peace conference that began on January 6.

DRC President Joseph Kabila attended the closing ceremony in which delegates from the armed groups signed the “act of engagement” in turn from 17:40 local time (14:40 GMT).

The “act of engagement” which includes a ceasefire and troop withdrawal deal is the fruit of the 17-day peace conference.

More than 1,000 delegates from armed groups, the military, local community and business leaders, and politicians attended the conference which had been twice delayed by CNDP and by Mai-Mai warriors from various tribes.

Nkunda is claimed to protect the region’s Tutsi minority, but is wanted as war crimes by the government who has deployed 25,000 men to battle Nkunda’s 4,000 troops.

The peace conference which touched on an exit strategy for the ex-general would officially end today, but “the work for the fellow-up of the conference recommendations will continue,” Vital Kamerhe, spokesman and chairman for the conference committee of elders, said earlier Wednesday.

Editor: Mu Xuequan , www.chinaview.cn