UNITED NATIONS, June 7: About 50 international UN staffers have been pulled out of Congo following fighting in the eastern town of Bukavu and anti-UN riots in several cities, the United Nations said on Monday.

The staffers, part of a contingent of 694 international civilian aides who work for the UN peacekeeping mission in the vast central African nation, were evacuated to neighboring Uganda after being deemed "nonessential," UN officials said.

Some family members of UN staff in Kinshasa, the capital, have also been evacuated to Uganda, the officials said, although their numbers were not released. The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire, is Africa's third largest country and is struggling to recover from five years of civil war that largely ended last year except for sporadic fighting in the east.

Fresh fighting in eastern Congo, which began last week, is the most serious challenge yet to the new transitional government installed in Kinshasa, and there is growing international concern it could spark a wider conflict.

In Kinshasa, Belgium's foreign minister said the European Union was considering an emergency intervention force similar to the 1,100-strong French-led mission sent to restore peace in the northeastern town of Bunia last year.

Following last week's seizure of Bukavu by renegade forces, thousands of people rioted in the streets in Kinshasa and other Congo cities in protest against the failure of UN peacekeepers and Congo government forces to protect the key eastern town, where some 90 people have been killed.

In an apparently unrelated incident, two UN peacekeepers were killed on Sunday when their convoy was ambushed outside Goma, a border town some 80 miles to the north.

UN officials in New York said the incident occurred when a UN convoy en route to the eastern town of Goma came across a looting incident. The looters fired at the convoy, striking one South African peacekeeper in the leg.

diplomatic efforts: The European Union is intensifying diplomatic efforts to bring about a resolution to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo but is not considering dispatching a peacekeeping force, an EU diplomatic source said Monday.

"There are diplomatic and regular political contacts but there is no talk of an operation," said the source, adding that events in the DRC are being monitored closely. -Reuters/ AFP