By East Africa correspondent Cathy Jenkins

Burundi Government soldiers killed at least 43 people in a New Year's Eve massacre, according to a report by the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

The report said that some people died from knife or bayonet wounds and that the victims included women and children.

The killings were said to have taken place in Kabezi, a rural district not far from the capital, Bujumbura.

Amnesty said the killings appear to have been in reprisal for an ambush three days earlier in which two soldiers were killed.

The area around Bujumbura has become increasingly unstable over the past months, with rebel groups carrying out attacks on civilians and government troops launching operations to try to flush the rebels out of the hills around the capital.

Government denial

The Burundian Government has strongly denied the Amnesty report.

A military spokesman said that soldiers had not been involved in the killing of any civilians on New Year's Eve.

The low-level war between government troops and Hutu rebels who are trying to topple Burundi's Tutsi-dominated administration has been going on for more than six years.

An estimated 200,000 people have died, and many of these have been civilians.

On some occasions the army has admitted to killing civilians but says it has been by mistake.

Forced removals

In September last year more than 280,000 Hutus were forcibly moved by the government from their rural homes around Bujumbura into makeshift camps.

The government policy is to deprive the Hutu rebels of any help they may get, voluntary or otherwise, from the civilian population.

Human rights groups have strongly condemned the government action.