KINSHASA, Feb 25: Militiamen killed nine United Nations Bangladeshi peacekeepers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday in the worst attack against the UN force in the central African country, a UN spokesman said.

"I can confirm that nine Bangladeshis were killed," spokesman Mamadou Ba said in the capital Kinshasa. One UN source said UN soldiers had recovered the bodies of their comrades after two UN patrols were ambushed in the lawless Ituri district of the former Zaire.

"The peacekeepers were fired upon from all sides," said a second UN military source. The second source said it was not clear how many troops had been on patrol but that the number should have been between 20 and 30. He said 90 peacekeepers backed by two Mi25 attack helicopters had since been sent to the scene.

The United Nations has a 4,800-strong force in Ituri made up of four contingents from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Morocco and Nepal. The total UN force in Congo numbers 16,000, making it the world body's biggest peacekeeping operation.

Ituri is one of Congo's worst trouble spots, where ethnic militias have killed 50,000 civilians since 1999 - the year the current UN force in the country, known by its French acronym MONUC, was established.

"PREMEDITATED ATTACK": One of the UN sources said the patrols were attacked in Ndoki, some 30 km (19 miles) east of Ituri's main city of Bunia and an area controlled by a predominantly ethnic Lendu militia known as FNI.

It was not clear if the peacekeepers were all killed on the spot or if some of them were first taken into the bush and murdered later. "Lendus are not people that take hostages, they just kill," the source said, adding that it was raining heavily in Ituri, making search and rescue operations difficult.

"It seems like a very well planned and executed ambush," he said. In a statement, MONUC called the killings a "premeditated attack" against its troops because of their recent drive to arrest and disarm militias terrorizing civilians in Ituri. -Reuters