The Ugandan government has confirmed that a group of Ugandan exiles are plotting to form a new rebel group to topple the National Resistance Movement government, a senior government official said here on Thursday.

Ruhakana Rugunda, the Minister of Internal Affairs told the press that the group is persuading different rebel groups hiding in the Democratic Republic of Congo to launch joint attacks against the NRM government.

The rebel groups include the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), People Redemption Army (PRA) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who is currently negotiating a peace deal with the government in Juba, southern Sudan, aimed to end the two decade conflict in northern Uganda.

"There have been discussions between the LRA, ADF, PRA to set up some umbrella organization, or to unite or to have some functional relationship to launch an effective operation against Uganda," Rugunda responded to a story published by a local newspaper recently.

He said the discussions, which are spearheaded by a group of " wrong elements" in exile, however, have not yielded concrete results.

"Reports we are getting indicate that this has remained in talk and nothing concrete has been agreed upon. On the contrary all these rebel groups have been effectively humbled and their capacity to destabilize Uganda has been reduced," Rugunda said.

He called upon the Ugandans in the exile who are towing what he called a wrong line to stop wasting time and take advantage of the Amnesty Act to come back home.

According to the act, Ugandans who confess and abandon rebellion are free to come back home.

The East African country has had rebel groups destabilizing a seating government since the late 1960's, during which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and others fled the country.

The peace talks between the NRM government and the LRA has seen a landmark truce agreement signed and renewed since the peace process initiated by the southern Sudan authority began in July, though violations by both sides were reported and a few sticking- out issues have yet to be sorted out.

Source: Xinhua