Congo Rebels, Following Ultimatum, Begin Retreat GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AP) - Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo began retreating from some of the territory they seized last week, their military leader said Wednesday, in the first concrete sign that international pressures have stemmed their advance. Gen. Sultani Makenga, the military chief of the eight-month-old rebellion, said his fighters intended to abide by an ultimatum issued by Congo's neighbors, which called for the rebels to retreat by Friday to 12 miles outside Goma, the major eastern city that fell to the fighters last week. He said that he had ordered his fighters to retreat to Goma from one town, and that they would leave Goma after that. "I think that, by Friday, we will be able to complete this," he said. A spokesman for the Congolese government, Lambert Mende, confirmed that it had received reports of troops pulling out of the town of Masisi. "We won't label it a retreat until it's over," he said. They have played this game with us before, where they say they are moving, and then find a reason not to. He added that there would be no negotiations until the rebels, known as M23, were 12 miles outside "the Goma city limit." In Goma, there was skepticism over the rebels" claim as well as confusion, particularly after the leader of the rebels" political wing insisted that the fighters were not leaving the city, which has one million people and is the economic heart of one of Congo's mineral-rich regions. On Wednesday, an M23 official, Theophile Ruremesha, said that President Joseph Kabila's government needed to meet the rebels" wide-ranging demands for them to leave the city."Kabila has to meet our demands if we are to pull out," he said. While some fear M23, which has a record of carrying out killings and of forcing children into its ranks, other residents of Goma are afraid of the undisciplined Congolese Army that was pushed out of the city by the rebels on Nov. 20. About 1,500 United Nations peacekeepers were in Goma when M23 attacked and government forces fled, but the well-armed peacekeepers did not intervene, saying they lacked a mandate. One of their main missions is to protect civilians. Many people expressed anxiety about a possible attack by the Congolese Army, which lies in wait several dozen miles south of Goma. "This is a nerve-racking situation," said Ernest Mugisho, a Goma resident. It fluctuates every hour, and we cannot even plan for tomorrow. Eastern Congo is plagued by numerous armed groups, and on Tuesday the Rwandan government said 150 fighters from another renegade group had crossed into Rwanda, attacking a village and clashing with Rwandan troops, in the first such incursion on Rwandan soil in years. But M23 has proved a particular threat to the Congolese government. It has a large, new cache of weapons, including heavy artillery, that were abandoned by the fleeing Congolese Army last week, according to M23"s president, Jean-Marie Runiga. Six flatbed trucks carrying crates of ammunition were seen Tuesday being driven by M23 soldiers north from Goma. The rebel group was created by former rebels who joined and then defected from the Congolese Army. A United Nations group of experts said in a report last week that M23 is backed by neighboring Rwanda. Rwanda has strongly denied the accusation.