Bangladesh 'undeterred' by attack

The peacekeepers were killed by unknown gunmen in the north-east Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The incident will not deter in anyway our commitment to UN peace missions," Bengali ambassador to the UN Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury told the BBC.

The peacekeepers' bodies are expected to be sent home on Monday or Tuesday.

'Criminal act'

The UN force in Ituri - known as "blue helmets" - also includes peacekeeping troops from Pakistan, Morocco and Nepal.

The UN's spokesman in Kinshasa, Mamdou Bah, said a group of soldiers were ambushed at about 0920 local time (0720 GMT) near the town of Kafe, 30km (19 miles) north-west of the provincial capital, Bunia.

The men killed were among 21 Bangladeshis on patrol in a camp housing civilians who had fled fighting in the region, the spokesman told the Associated Press news agency.

"These blue helmets were out there protecting people and they got ambushed while doing it."

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called the attack a "criminal act" and urged the government to bring those responsible to justice.

Ituri has been the scene of bitter ethnic fighting for a number of years.

Violence between rival militias resumed in the mineral-rich province in December, and aid workers say tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting - many fleeing to neighbouring Uganda.

UN forces have come under attack in Ituri before, but this is the first time that soldiers have been killed there, says the BBC's correspondent in the region, Ishbel Matheson.

Bangladesh, which is one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping operations across the world, has 1,300 troops in DR Congo.

The soldiers' deaths were the second largest loss of life for the Bangladeshi army while on UN peacekeeping duties.

In December 2003, 15 Bangladeshi officers died in a plane crash in Benin.