French troops ordered militia to disarm in Bunia

Colonel Gerard Dubois told the French news agency AFP that three fighters were killed when members of the rebel group fired shots during a search for banned weapons.

The UN-mandated peacekeeping force's mission is to restore security in Bunia, capital of the north-eastern Ituri region.

The area has been convulsed by a bloody feud between rival Hema and Lendu ethnic groups which has left some 50,000 people dead since 1999.

Earlier on Friday, the French force in Bunia were reported to have asked the rebel leader, Thomas Lubanga, who previously controlled the town, to reduce the number of his bodyguards from 30 to five.

Rejected

Mr Lubanga is reported to have rejected the request.

Colonel Dubois said it was a clarification, not an ultimatum, following last month's directives which prohibits the militia to carry weapons inside the town of Bunia.

Meanwhile, more than 240 Indian air force personnel backed by nine helicopters, including four gunships, were expected to leave India on Friday night for DR Congo.

The Indian force, the largest contribution to the UN peacekeeping mission, will be deployed in Goma and Bunia, notorious for ethnic clashes, near the borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

It is the largest contingent of the Indian air force to leave on a peacekeeping mission and the second one to leave for the central African country in 33 years.

Fighting in the northeast of the DRC has continued despite a peace agreement implemented in April officially ended a four-and-a-half-year war in the country.