I want to eat what I have grown myself and not to have to beg

Monique, refugee

However, most of the refugees in Tanzania are afraid of going back home because of continued fighting.

Despite the inauguration of a power-sharing government in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, last year, some ethnic Hutu-dominated rebel groups have not laid down their weapons.

Thousands of people have fled the latest outbreak of fighting around the capital in the past week.

Military escort

Around 48,000 refugees have registered to return to Burundi, the United Nations refugee agency said.

"I've spent nine years begging," said Monique, a 35-year-old refugee.

"I want to eat what I have grown myself and not to have to beg, neither I nor my children," she told the French news agency, AFP as she began her trip home.

The first convoy was given a heavy military escort as it made its way to a transit camp in Ngozi province, northern Burundi.

After a day there, the refugees will then be taken to their home villages, said Lazare Karekezi, governor of Muyinga province.

The first group of refugees is from northern Burundi, where there is less fighting than in the south.

Tanzania has complained that it is unable to host such a large number of refugees and both governments have been trying to persuade them to go back home.

Burundi's authorities have accused the Hutu rebels of encouraging the refugees to stay, so they can be used as cover for rear bases in Tanzania.

An estimated 250,000 people have been killed in a nine-year war between ethnic Hutus and Tutsis.