Reports from Nigeria say the national police chief, Musiliu Smith, has ordered a census in the southern town of Odi to discover exactly how many people were killed by soldiers in November.

There have been conflicting figures on the number of people killed after troops were deployed by President Obasanjo to track down the killers of twelve policemen.

Dozens of people were killed during the army operation -- some local estimates put the deaths in the hundreds -- and the town was largely destroyed.

The president yesterday expressed his sincere regret for the killings.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service