Fighting hits Congo's capital for third day

KINSHASA, Aug 22 (Reuters) Gunbattles rocked the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa for a third day today after the nnouncement of a presidential run-off vote following July 30 elections, witnesses said.

Heavy gunfire was heard near the area where UN and European peacekeepers on Monday rescued a group of foreign ambassadors yesterday trapped by fighting between soldiers loyal to President Joseph Kabila and supporters of an election rival.

A Reuters correspondent in Kinshasa heard both small arms fire and the occasional thump of heavier weaponry today and saw two Congolese army tanks moving in the direction of the latest fighting.

Uruguayan troops using armoured vehicles and supported by Spanish legionnaires had yesteray escorted the UN and foreign envoys from the house of Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba in Kinshasa where they were pinned down by gunbattles.

The Spanish troops, part of a European Union military force in Congo, had been deployed yesterday during night to secure the city's main boulevard.

They were seeing and hearing gunbattles going on around them today, diplomats said, following sporadic gunfire during most of the night. Several UN armoured vehicles had been put in position around Bemba's house.

The United Nations has its biggest peacekeeping force in the world -- more than 17,000-strong -- deployed in Congo.

The July polls were the first free national vote for more than four decades in the vast, mineral-rich, war-scarred former Belgian colony.

As no candidate gained enough votes to win the presidential election outright, electoral officials announced on Sunday that Kabila and Bemba, the two leading contenders, would face off in a second round run-off on October 29.

REUTERS DKA VC1220