David Miliband, the foreign secretary, flew to the Democratic Republic of the Congo last night, as Britain joined a mounting diplomatic effort to end the interminable conflict in the east amid questions about the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping mission there.

Miliband will fly this morning from the capital, Kinshasa, to the stricken eastern town of Goma, as concerns grow about the plight of tens of thousands of people displaced by the latest bout of the conflict.

He will proceed, with F