By Francis Kwera

KAMPALA, July 25 (Reuters) - A failure by Ugandan rebels to raise $2 million to fund foreign travel and reach commanders in their forest hideouts will delay the planned resumption of peace talks next week, participants said on Wednesday.

Discussions between representatives of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas and Ugandan government officials had been due to resume in Juba, southern Sudan, next Monday.

But Martin Ojul, head of the LRA delegation at the talks, said his group had been unable to raise enough money from donors to organise a visit by 500 people to meet rebel leaders.

LRA boss Joseph Kony and his top deputies are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and have yet to be seen in Juba. Instead, they are camped somewhere in Democratic Republic of Congo's lawless Garamba forest.

"We are still stuck," Ojul told Reuters by telephone from southern Sudan. "We want funds to ferry people from northern Uganda to Garamba, and to send people abroad to do research so that we can build a strong case of justice and reconciliation."

The Ugandan government has agreed to use a national process of accountability for atrocities committed during two decades of war between its military and the LRA -- implicitly rejecting ICC demands the wanted men be handed over for trial in The Hague.

The aim of the planned Garamba trip, Ojul said, was to discuss with Kony how to achieve accountability without the ICC.

LRA representatives are also hoping to visit South Africa, Sierra Leone and Argentina. "Travelling to these countries will help us learn how people there dealt with situations of conflict, justice and reconciliation," Ojul said.

Northern Uganda's war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted nearly 2 million more. LRA fighters are notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

The head of the Ugandan government team in Juba, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told Reuters the resumption of the talks would be delayed, but gave no other details.

"Consultations on the government side are in advanced stages," he said. "We are supposed to resume on July 30 but we cannot due to some issues. A new date will be communicated."

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