Uganda has denied it has struck a deal with Israel to take in tens of thousands of African refugees, Foreign Ministry officials said Saturday.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday that Israel would finance the migrants' flights to Uganda and their resettlement there, with each refugee apparently receiving $1,500 (1,135 euros).

Uganda on Tuesday passed a controversial bill to limit public demonstrations, criticized by rights groups as a "devastating blow" to free speech and political debate.

The Public Management Order bill places tough restrictions on public meetings, including granting police the power to block a gathering of as few as three people to debate politics.

Two Ugandan journalists were freed in South Sudan on Wednesday after four nights in detention for filming in the capital Juba, the reporters said.

"I am happy I am out and finally to be going back home," said Justin Dralaze, a freelancer, after being released along with his colleague Hillary Ayesiga.

More than 30,000 refugees from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo fleeing a rebel attack on the town of Kamango have arrived in neighboring Uganda, U.N. officials said Saturday.

Streams of refugees have crossed the border into western Uganda's Bundibugyo district since the attack on Thursday.

Rwanda is key to ensuring peace in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday as he toured the region to boost a new deal to end decades of violence.

A United Nations-brokered accord, signed in February by 11 regional countries after a bloody uprising by Congo's M23 rebels, seeks to quell a long-running conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo, which neighbors Rwanda.

Ugandan police raided two newspaper offices and two radio stations Monday, after reports of a falling out among army generals over whether the president's son is to succeed him.

"Police ordered our operations shut down under the pretext of carrying out a search," said Alex Asimwe, managing director of The Daily Monitor, one of the country's main daily newspapers.

Uganda has suspended its hunt for Lord's Resistance Army chief Joseph Kony in Central African Republic after Seleka rebels took control of the country, an army spokesman said Wednesday.

"We have temporarily suspended operations against the LRA until further notice," army spokesman Felix Kulayigye said.

Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels and government delegations met separately Saturday with Ugandan mediators, a day ahead of a hoped-for resumption of direct talks, Ugandan officials said.

"The two delegations are here finally and we are hoping for a (face-to-face) session tomorrow (Sunday)," said Ugandan defense ministry spokesman Paddy Ankunda.

Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels on Wednesday demanded Kinshasa sign a formal ceasefire, accusing officials of dragging out peace talks to bolster the army's position on the ground.

"The government is refusing to sign a ceasefire," said the rebels' political chief Jean-Marie Runiga told Agence France Presse.

The inability of U.N. peacekeeping forces to prevent conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is shameful, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a key broker in the crisis, said at a summit on Saturday.

"It is a very big shame," Museveni said of MONUSCO, during a summit of the southern African bloc SADC in the Tanzanian economic capital Dar es Salaam. "It is some sort of military tourism."