Officials said rebel fighters poured into the hillside village of Mpehe, about 40 km (25 miles) east of the capital Bujumbura, in the early hours of Thursday and slaughtered many people in their homes.

Logatien Ndoricimpa, the governor of Muramvya province, said the rebels came singing religious songs and killed at least 30 civilians with gunfire and machetes.

"The whole hill and village were full of rebels singing."

In a separate incident, two soldiers and two civilian were killed when rebels and government troops clashed in Gihosha just north of Bujumbura, officials said.

The violence follows heavy fighting in which which at least 21 people died on Tuesday and Wednesday.

'Don't hold peace hostage'

Mrs Albright President Buyoya against using the death of Julius Nyerere, the mediator in Burundi's conflict, as an excuse to slow down the peace process.

Major Buyoya himself came to power in a coup

The Burundian leader suggested a southern African - but not from South Africa - to replace Mr Nyerere when he met Mrs Albright at Mr Nyerere's state funeral on Thursday, a US official said.

"Our perspective has been that, awkward as it might be, it's best not to hold the process hostage to the selection of a new facilitator," the official said.

Mr Buyoya said it was too soon to decide on a replacement.

But in a letter to the United Nations this week he said he disagreed with the way Mr Nyerere had handled the negotiations and called for a successor to be appointed urgently.

Mrs Albright also told Mr Buyoya that the US was concerned at Burundi's practice of gathering villagers in camps while the army conducts operations against rebels.

The UN estimates 500,000 Burundians live in camps around the country.

The country has been the scene of bloody ethnic violence involving minority Tutsis, who dominate the army and government, and armed Hutu rebels.

Conflict began in 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu.