GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (AFP) - The French and British foreign ministers personally sized up the situation in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday and urged greater security and aid for more than one million displaced people. Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband briefly visited a displaced persons' camp in the north of Goma, the rebel-surrounded capital of Nord-Kivu province, where they saw for themselves the urgent needs of those who have fled the fighting between rebels and government forces. "The roads are blocked and thus there must be greater security," Koucher, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters in Goma. "There also perhaps needs to be quicker distribution (of aid) via the airport," added the foreign minister, a founder of Doctors Without Borders before he entered politics. "The humanitarian need is absolutely pressing," agreed Miliband, the British foreign secretary. "Humanitarian aid needs security and that is the absolute priority for these people (aid workers) who need safe and secure routes for the humanitarian aid that has been promised." Kouchner and Miliband arrived in Goma after talks earlier Saturday in the Congolese capital Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila. They proceeded from Goma to Rwanda's capital Kigali and evening talks with President Paul Kagame. Both men are to brief EU colleagues on the situation after rebel fighters of Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) chased out government forces and surrounded Goma. "We are going to try to convince them that new aid must be made available," Kouchner said. The camp that Kouchner and Miliband visited is in a zone controlled by UN peacekeepers, with Nkunda's rebels only a few kilometres (miles) away in an area where aid workers have been unable to resume their work. Some 220,000 people have been displaced since fighting broke out in August, bringing to more than one million the number forced from their homes in Nord-Kivu, a province bordering Rwanda that totals five million. Meawhile, Global demand for rare minerals, including one that is crucial for mobile phones, is stoking conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a human rights campaign group said Saturday. Global Witness said Nord-Kivu and Sud-Kivu provinces were rich in cassiterite (tin ore), gold and coltan, with trade in such minerals underpinning a decade of conflict and human rights abuses. "Short-term diplomatic initiatives will not produce lasting peace unless the underlying causes of the conflict are addressed," it said in a statement from its London headquarters. "The economic benefits of fighting a war in this region remain one of the central motives of the warring parties." Coltan, or colombo-tantalite ore, is used to make pinhead capacitators that are essential parts in cellphones and other consumer electronics. One-third of the world's estimated coltan reserves are in Congo. Global Witness said: "Almost all the main armed groups involved in the conflict, as well as soldiers of the national Congolese army, have been trading illegally in these minerals for years, with complete impunity." It urged "stringent due diligence" on the part of manufactuers who should refuse to buy minerals found to passed through the hands of armed groups.