Talks aimed at ending fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday hit a snag as the M23 rebels failed to show up at the negotiation table in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

In the negotiation room only the DRC government officials showed up.

The mediator of the talks, also Uganda's Minister of Defense Crispus Kiyonga told the meeting that the leader of the M23 delegation told him that he was under instructions not to attend the session.

"I personally rang the leader of the M23 delegation to turn up. The leader indicated to that he was under instruction not to attend this particular session," Kiyonga said.

Kiyonga insisted that the talks are still on although the M23 did not want to attend the rebuttal of the Congolese government.

On Sunday, the day the talks opened, the M23 accused the Congolese government of committing extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing and poor governance that has led to the under development of the mineral rich country.

Raymond Tshibanda, Congo's head of delegation and also the minister of foreign affairs protested and asked the mediator for a rebuttal.

When given opportunity on Monday, Tshibanda declined to rebuttal unless the M23 delegation was in the negotiation room. Tshibanda said that the truth about the fighting in DRC must be told.

"Inspite of the efforts of the additional time given to them, they are not here, what democracy is this- they are not ready to listen, they prefer making allegations," Tshibanda said.

Tshibanda urged the mediator to use his good office to ask the M23 to listen to the government rebuttal, promising that on Wednesday he would give the government side whether the M23 was at the negotiation table or not.

He said that despite the snag, he has confidence in the peace process.

The delegations were on Monday supposed to finish setting up the rules and procedures of the talks before starting the actual talks.

The talks are seen as a solution to end over eight months of fighting between the M23 and the DR Congo government.

The fighting has internally displaced over 475,000 people and forced over 75,000 others to flee to neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Uganda has since July been heading regional efforts under the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, a regional body bringing together 11 member states to end the fighting.