The deadline, imposed by the UN-mandated Interim Emergency Multinational Force to ensure the free movement of civilians, was almost universally respected in the town, where ethnic clashes claimed hundreds of lives last month.

But an attempt by a small group of gunmen from a militia opposed to the rebel group controlling Bunia to infiltrate a southern suburb prompted the French troops to fire several shots and send four light tanks in pursuit.

Fighters from an ethnic Lendu militia were blamed for the incident. Lendu factions hold positions close to the town.

"The Lendu just wanted to remind people they are still around," said one UN source.

Aside from this incident, Operation Bunia Without Arms was well respected across the town, the UPC having pulled the remnants of its men from the streets the previous day.

Speaking before the attempted incursion, Colonel Gerard Dubois, the spokesman for the EU force, told AFP by telephone that he had no reports of the force's troops having to make good a threat to confiscate any weapons found on the streets after the deadline expired mid-morning Tuesday.

"For me everything is going well," UPC leader Thomas Lubanga told AFP, also before the incident

In recent days, Lubanga had repeatedly stressed he had already withdrawn most of his fighters from Bunia on his own initiative.

The demilitarisation of Bunia is a key provision of various formal engagements made by most of the armed groups active in the area.

The process is not a full-scale disarmament operation and the only weapons the EU force says it will confiscate are those found on the streets.

Dubois has repeatedly stressed the force has no plans and lacks the manpower to conduct exhaustive house to house searches.

On Monday evening, Lubanga complained that the force had failed to take control of several key access points to the town previously held by his men, "which could be used by outside forces to spread devastation."

In some outlying areas of town, the departure of UPC fighters, many of whom have not yet reached adulthood, prompted many residents to leave their homes, either following the withdrawing gunmen or moving towards the city centre.

According to Dubois, French patrols were later deployed to secure the areas vacated by the UPC.

The rebel leader added that despite this complaint, "we will not go back on our undertakings."

The force has not disclosed exactly how weapons would be confiscated from any recalcitrant gunmen, insisting only that its soldiers would be vigorous in enforcing the rule.

The precise geophrapical limits of the ban and the exact number of weapons Lubanga's personal security contingent are allowed to carry had not been fixed by early afternoon Tuesday.

Force patrols have on several occasions dealt sternly with armed men who dared defy French troops, on one occasion shooting dead two youths they pointed their weapons in the direction of the troops.

They had two minor encounters Monday, one in the morning when a shot was fired at the force's airport base and a second that led to the disarmament of three men whom Dubois said had acted in a "hostile manner."

WAR.WIRE