Niger rebels say they killed 15 government soldiers

NIAMEY, Aug 22 (Reuters) Tuareg-led rebels in Niger said they had killed 15 government soldiers in a clash at Gougaram in the West African country's remote Saharan north, where uranium is mined.

The rebel group, which before the latest reported fighting had already killed at least 44 government troops since February, said a large convoy of military vehicles had advanced towards the town of Iferouane on Monday, prompting yesterday's clash.

''There was a clash between us and them, and 15 of them were killed and two vehicles destroyed,'' the rebel Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ) said on its blog http://m-n-j.blogspot.com/.

It said four other vehicles had also been destroyed.

Government officials in the capital Niamey could not confirm the fighting.

The MNJ launched its uprising in the impoverished desert region, home to some of the world's largest uranium reserves, in February to demand a fairer share in its mineral wealth and more development assistance.

President Mamadou Tandja's government dismisses the group as bandits and drug traffickers, and has accused Libya and French state-controlled uranium group Areva, which mines uranium in the area, of backing the revolt.

Areva has since increased the royalties it pays to Niger for mining its uranium.

The government at the weekend accused unidentified ''rich foreign powers'' of paying mercenaries to lay mines in the region, whose mineral reserves are a major source of state revenue in a dirt-poor country which is bottom of the UN Human Development Index.

A mine explosion killed four military police officers and seriously wounded three more on Monday near the ancient Saharan trading town of Agadez, the government said.

The former French colony has said it will break the French company's monopoly on mining in the area and has awarded dozens of prospecting permits in the north to mining companies from China, India, Canada, Britain, France and elsewhere.

REUTERS RKM PM1444