By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Congolese and Ugandan military officials have agreed to work together to defuse tensions along their border on Lake Albert after clashes that killed two people, U.N.-sponsored Radio Okapi reported on Tuesday.

Armed gunmen killed a British oil contractor on Friday in a pre-dawn raid on a boat operated in Ugandan waters by Canada's Heritage Oil Corp. <HOC.TO>, and a Congolese soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with Ugandan forces later the same day.

Ugandan army officials accused Congolese troops of carrying out the dawn attack, but Congolese Defence Minister Chikez Diemu told Reuters he did not believe his soldiers were involved.

Army officers from the two sides met on Monday on Rukwanzi, an island straddling the border in the middle of the lake, and Congo's army handed over four captured Ugandan soldiers it accused of illegally crossing the border a week ago, Okapi said.

"The two sides must remain in permanent contact and collaborate closely to peacefully solve any problems that could come up instead of resorting to armed force," General Andre Kinkela, Congolese army commander in eastern Ituri district, told Okapi afterwards.

Both armies had agreed to put tight controls on troop movements on the lake, the radio said.

Ugandan General Hudson Mukasa blamed the recent incidents on poor demarcation of the border by former colonial powers Britain and Belgium. "We hope that political officials of the two governments will talk about it and find a solution," he said.

Relations between the two Great Lakes neighbours have been icy since Congo's 1998-2003 war, in which Uganda backed rebels trying to overthrow the Congolese government.

Ugandan troops occupied large swathes of the giant central African state during the five-year conflict and are accused of pillaging natural resources in territory under their control.

Today Lake Albert, one of several lakes on East Africa's Great Rift Valley, is the focus of the hunt for crude oil on a continent long dominated by West African sources. Both Congo and Uganda hope to cash in if oil is found beneath the lake bed.

Heritage, which has owned acreage in Uganda for 10 years, also has concessions on the Congolese side of the lake but has yet to start exploration there.

Heritage owns two concessions in a 50-50 partnership with British-based Tullow Oil <TLW.I> on the lake's eastern shores. Tullow also wholly owns one block.

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